How To Incubate Duck Eggs Without An Incubator

In the previous post, I talked about how we were able to hatch duck eggs 25 days old after their mother was killed using only heat pads and a little elbow grease. In this article, I will show the process that happened to transfer them to our dormant incubator shell and hatch successfully. We incubate them for 10 days, tending them four times a day, changing the wet rags to keep the humidity up. Reading: how to incubate duck eggs without an incubator In spite of everything, I heard a peep one night while I was feeding them the last wet rag before going to bed. Hallelujah! The next day, three eggs were pierced. I could hardly contain my excitement. Incubating the eggs, however, poses a new problem – how can they hatch multiple layers under the weight of rags and blankets? This is where our dormant incubator comes in handy. It can easily be recreated with a foam cooler or even a standard plastic cooler. You just need a way to trap heat and moisture, but with the ability to let excess moisture out. I fill in the channels suitable for incubating eggs to retain moisture. Without an incubator, I would get something like my Excalibur dehydrating tray mesh that allows airflow but still provides support for chicks and hatching ducks. Put it on some lids that have water in them. When working with humidity, the amount of water does not matter; surface area is . If moisture collects above the temporary hatching area, you need to reduce the humidity. Here is a thorough record of bloom moisture; combined with a sensor, you eliminate the guesswork. eggs The first pipette happened 10 days after we found the nest. Read more: How to STOP ON A Skateboard: 3 best methods you need to know. With humidity under control, the next step is to maintain the temperature around 90 degrees. Our incubator fan works, but it doesn’t generate heat, so it only serves to increase temperature fluctuations and mess things up. I unplug it and maintain heat by boiling water and placing it in built-in pots with tight-fitting lids. I put them down on opposite sides of the incubator and closed the lid. Using a cooking thermometer, I continued to monitor the temperature. Before that, when the room temperature was lower, I wrapped the blanket with a blanket to keep the heat in, leaving the top vent open. If recreating in the fridge, putting the straw out of the hole and wrapping the rest in a blanket will help, but you’ll be opening the straw every few hours to let fresh air in. Fill a quart of boiling water and a pint-built jar and place them in the incubator. After the ducks started hatching, we covered them with rags so that the ducklings wouldn’t get burned on the jar. eggs Use an electric kettle to boil water for the jars. During the day, the jars need to be rinsed with boiling water every 3-4 hours. To do this, boil the water first, then quickly open the hatch, pull out the jar, close the lid, fill it with water and replace it with a new one. Our temperatures fluctuate between 93-102, because I mistakenly thought I needed to aim for 100. Because of the fluctuations, it might be good to aim around 95 so they don’t get too cold as the water cools. . Overnight, we went about 7 hours between heating. The lowest temperature we reached was 88 overnight during incubation. The room temperature in the morning was 62, so the foam and blanket did a great job insulating and keeping the hatch box warm. we still have pips starting 48 hours after the first. Based on this, I imagine the foster mother duck would have a higher hatching rate if we brought unbroken eggs when the mother left the nest. I am writing this post at 3pm on June 28th. The first rattles were heard on the evening of 24/6 and we discovered the first pips on the morning of June 25. The 9th duckling hatched about half an hour ago. Mom must have moved out of the nest by now and left some of her belongings intact. Now that I know we can incubate them relatively easily without the incubator running, I’m more likely to take those unbroken eggs and try to hatch them.The first duckling stared at me. Sorry! To incubate the newly hatched chicks, we have set up a heater in our currently unused 12’x20′ greenhouse. There are some weeds in there to eat and we added a shallow pan for swimming/drinking and grinding some whole grains in our wheat grinder for food. I brought out some snacks when I went to check in and added a small bowl of whey from the cheese making process. and water. According to this article, four chicks have been raised safely and successfully in a greenhouse with a one-week-old litter of ducklings given to us a few days ago. I will move the chicks that have just hatched this morning out tonight or tomorrow morning, depending on how they look.Overall, this is a huge success. From cold eggs with little hope to now nine out of ten successfully hatched is an extraordinary ratio. I haven’t had such luck using a working incubator, let alone a messy combination of tools and techniques to incubate them without one! Valuable backup method to keep eggs alive when the mother cannot. I’m a bit concerned that the heatsink we’re using could handle the heat for those 10 long days – but it holds up admirably. After this experience, I’m aiming to buy a backup as a backup should we ever need to do this again.Quick update 7/1: We collected 13 eggs from the hen’s nest, but only confirmed movement in 10. As of this morning, all 13 eggs have successfully hatched into thriving ducklings.