What are the hatch rates in winter?

[DUCKGIRL89]

I was trying to hatch the 6 khaki campbell eggs i got off ebay and it didnt work at all. None of them hatched at all. I have three female ducks that are laying eggs now. 1 female rouen, and 2 female khaki campbells. I also have a male rouen and a male khaki. I really want to hatch but I want to have a succsessful hatch this time around, but if the rates are going to be super low I wont bother. But I really want three male rouen duck so we can have roast duck on cristmas, easter and maybe some other time. So does my mom? So what do you think the hatch rates will be?

Thanks!

 

[yinepu]

check the fertility of your eggs..
if you have enough males it doesn't seem to matter much (at least it never did with my ducks).. but check the yolks of a few eggs for bulls-eyes just to be sure

 

[DUCKGIRL89]

I have two males and three females. They are all in breeding pens now. The rouen pair are in one. And the khaki vampbell trio in the other.

 

[Arielle]

THe eggs you had from ebay were shipped and this usually hurts the eggs so some to none hatch. You will do much better with your own eggs. So once you check for fertility, go for it.
Many people are still hatching and many breeders with be starting up their incubators in Nov, Dec, Jan.

Enjoy!

 

[sheila3935]

Word of warning. If you hatch ducks in the winter and keep them inside they are stinky little buggers. I hatched out 9 this last winter from my runner/campbells. Did it in the incubator. Out of 12 eggs 9 hatched 3 were clear. But having them in the house was a trip. No matter how often I cleaned the brooder they stunk

When they were 4 weeks old I moved them into my husbands man cave which is a second house we have on the property with a heat lamp as we dont keep that house very warm as its not used a whole lot. I'm sure he wasnt too happy about it but I couldnt take them in the house any longer. They hatched in January and we moved them outside the end of March.

 

[shelby528]

I always have good luck year round with fertility and hatch rate with my birds and my coop is not snow tight..last year we got the biggest storm and were in a state of emergency and my poor birds were...snowed in yet, they kept laying...I try my best to have as many hatch in the winter so they are ready for processing come warmer weather.

 

[DUCKGIRL89]

Yeah, my mom wants some male ducks in spring for slauter. I hope I can hatch some.