Preparation of the incubator for duck eggs:
24 hours before it is ready, the incubator must be prepared. The incubator must be clean and sterilized. Never use an incubator that has not been sterilized. Styrofoam incubators are especially susceptible to mold and mildew. Incubators are run in warm, humid areas where mold and mildew thrive, cleanliness is very important, I cannot stress this enough. The eggs are porous, they have small holes for inhaling and exhaling. Bacteria thrive in the incubator due to high humidity and heat. If the incubator is contaminated, the eggs will also be contaminated. The bacteria will settle inside the egg and consume important vitamins and nutrients crucial for the growth of the ducks. The bacteria is horrible, it could easily become toxic or render duck eggs infertile, among many other bad things.
Preparation of duck eggs for incubation:
Duck eggs must be at room temperature before being placed inside the incubator. This means leaving them at room temperature for at least 8 hours after taking them out of the fridge. It’s time to inspect the duck eggs. Check your eggs for cracks, remove them and any abnormally large eggs. Trust me, you do NOT want an egg to explode in the incubator. It stinks, it’s gross, and it will make a mess of your other eggs. Abnormally large eggs could mean multiple yolks and they wouldn’t hatch anyway. Remove any dirt or feces from the eggs if you have not already done so. Eggshells act like a womb, allowing bad gases to escape and oxygen to enter. Mud, feces, or any other contaminants on the shell will clog the tiny holes that allow the duck egg to breathe. If you need to use water make it warm, cold contracts, heat expands. Warm water will flush bacteria out of the holes, while cold water will reduce the contents of the egg and soak up the bad stuff.
Place the duck eggs in the incubator.
Place the small end of the duck egg down on the incubator tray. It is important to place the eggs with the large end facing up. The egg has an air cell inside it and letting it stay on the larger side of the egg allows for less evaporation of liquid and a higher hatchability rate. After placing the duck eggs in the incubator, establishing the proper temperature and humidity, check the incubator for proper operation several times a day for the first day and then periodically for the following days and the duration of the incubation process. Even slight setbacks seriously affect hatchability, too much heat or too little humidity means fewer ducklings. Different breeds vary in temperature and humidity settings, but typically to start with it’s 99.5 (84.5 degrees Fahrenheit if you’re using a wet bulb) degrees Fahrenheit and 55% relative humidity.
Remove bad eggs from the incubator.
Day 7 will be the day to watch over the duck eggs and check if there are bad ones to eliminate. Remove eggs that have “germ dead” or eggs that are infertile. Clear or cloudy eggs are the first sign of a rotten egg. By day 7, you should see the embryo forming chick-like features. Identifying the bad eggs is very important, you don’t want a broken or exploding egg to litter the incubator and the good eggs. Check the eggs again on day 14 to make sure you have all the good eggs. You should already know the best ducks for eggs.
Day 25 Move your duck eggs to the incubator.
A Hatcher is similar to the incubator, except the eggs are no longer turned and there is enough room for the duckling to hatch. While the incubator turns the eggs and there is no room for the baby to hatch. Set the hatcher temperature to 98.5 degrees Fahrenheit and increase the humidity to 94%. Over the next 2-5 days, the little ducklings will begin to hatch from their eggs. Once you see the egg hatch it’s normal to want to help them out and get them out, don’t. “Helping” the duckling has many disastrous consequences, including causing the poor thing to bleed to death. It usually takes about 24 hours for your baby to fully hatch. So don’t help him unless you have helped him too.
The breeder:
Once the duck eggs have incubated and hatched, move them to the brood box. The breeding box should be clean and have a heat source. Food and water are not needed until 24 hours after it has hatched. The duck is still absorbing the nutrients from the egg and needs time to adjust.