Pauses in incubation / turning eggs

[Rosiej]

I’m thinking about hatching duck eggs again soon. (I’ve got 4 ducks, 3 of which I hatched)

The problem is that I have two houses due to work and spend half the week in each house.
My incubator doesn’t have an automatic egg turner so I’m not sure what to do?

Can I transport the eggs between the two houses? It’s a 2 hr car journey.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Unless you kept the incubator plugged in and not rocking the eggs, no

 

[NatJ]

Of course you could try it and see, but I think that much car riding, twice a week, is going to be bad for the eggs. It would certainly be better if they did not spend that much time out of the incubator (temperature issues), but I am even more worried about the bouncing and bumping and vibration.

Do you take the current ducks back and forth? Would you plan on taking the ducklings back and forth after they hatch? (That has its own set of problems.) If you have someone who takes care of them at one house, you might ask if that person is willing to turn eggs for you as well.

If hatching eggs is very important to you, you could wait until there is a time you can spend long enough at one house. Or you could buy an incubator with a turner (or a turner for the incubator you have), although a turner would not help with taking care of the ducklings after they hatch.