Incubating Duck Eggs

[FluffTheDuck]

Greetings to you duck lovers, so yesterday I was going to put my Pekin duck's eggs in the incubator to hatch. I am hoping I will get two females out of the two eggs. So yesterday I gathered her egg and put it inside and my house is a lukewarm temperature, is that okay? How long can the eggs be sitting in the egg box thing before they become unable to hatch? I have a fresh day old egg as I said and an eight-day-old egg. Will I have to worry about them killing the babies when I put them out there and when should I put them out there? How do I tell the gender of them when they are one day old?

I will add more questions so look for the bold as those are new questions.

TIA!

@Miss Lydia
@Cayuga momma

 

[PirateGirl]

I have never incubated or hatched eggs, so I will let someone else answer that part.

When it comes time to put the babies outside, it is a very real possibility that the older ducks will not immediately accept them. You generally cannot give an adult duck a duckling and expect it to raise it. You will need to plan on raising the babies in a brooder and keeping them separate from the adults until they are nearly full grown.

The only way to tell the gender of a duckling that young is to vent sex it...

Here are some links with some good reading material for you:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/ducks-sticky-topics-index.256233/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/category/ducks.30/

 

[FluffTheDuck]

I have never incubated or hatched eggs, so I will let someone else answer that part.

When it comes time to put the babies outside, it is a very real possibility that the older ducks will not immediately accept them. You generally cannot give an adult duck a duckling and expect it to raise it. You will need to plan on raising the babies in a brooder and keeping them separate from the adults until they are nearly full grown.

The only way to tell the gender of a duckling that young is to vent sex it...

Here are some links with some good reading material for you:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/ducks-sticky-topics-index.256233/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/category/ducks.30/

Thank you so much. Vent sexing seems kind of dangerous for the ducks with a very newbie owner like me with incubating and hatching these "duggy wuggies" (that's what I call them, strange right?) so I will wait until I hear a quack and then sell the males... But will Quakers (the man of the duck coop) attack them?

 

[PirateGirl]

Yes. Quackers might attack them. Any adult females you have might attack them also. You may have to wait until they are close to full grown to safely integrate them and even then it can be a slow process that takes days, weeks, or months.

 

[FluffTheDuck]

Thanks

 

[Cayuga momma]

You want @CayugaJana @WVduckchick for this.

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

I'll take the question about storing hatching eggs - generally, a week to maybe ten days is as long as I would hold eggs for hatching. This assumes proper temps (cool-ish, around 55 degrees or so is optimal), humidity around 75% (ideally), and daily turning of the eggs while they're being stored.

I'd set that 8 day old egg soon.

 

[WVduckchick]

I’ve incubated and hatched eggs over 2 (even 3) weeks old, but viability decreases the older they get. So I personally don’t set much older than 14 days since laid.

 

[Pyxis]

Just adding that vent sexing definitely can be dangerous to do if you don't know what you're doing, so best not to do it if you're nervous or can't have someone experienced teach you

I agree with WV, I usually try to set all my eggs before they are ten days old. Older ones can definitely hatch, but viability is much better when they are younger.

 

[CayugaJana]

I don’t know how to vent sex ducklings but I plan on having another BYCer help me learn this spring. I tried once and I felt like I was going to hurt the duckling so I stopped.

I put my babies out when they are big enough to stay out of the adults way. I’ve never had them accept the ducklings. They are like high schoolers. But they do adjust eventually. I did have to put my drake in jail last year because he wanted to mate with the babies that weren’t mature enough. The babies and all females got along as long as the drake wasn’t around.