Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Things You’ll Need:
- Duck egg incubator
- Duck eggs
- Incubator thermometer
Step1
Obtain duck eggs that have been fertilized.
Step2
Ensure that a proper incubator has been purchased or built. Incubators can simply be any enclosed box or area that can retain heat and has easy access to the eggs.
Step3
Make sure the temperature of the enclosure or incubator stays at approximately 99 to 99.5 degrees F for the first 25 days. Reduce the temperature to 98.5 degrees F on day 25 and allow incubating for an additional 3 days.
Step4
Control the humidity of the incubating duck eggs for the first 25 days to 86 percent. Adjust the humidity to 94 percent for the remaining 3 days.
Step5
Turn the duck eggs an odd number of times per day throughout the first 25 days. Three, five, and seven times are a common process. This allows the hatching duck eggs to "rest" in differing positions. Stop turning the duck eggs over the last 3 days.
Step6
Consider candling (placing a small, very bright flashlight at the top of the duck egg and shining light through) the duck egg after 7 days to check on the fertilization process.
Comments
Fruitful said
on 4/10/2008 The humidity levels given in this article are actually "degrees" when humidity is measured with a wet-bulb thermometer (i.e. 86 degrees on days 1-25 and 94 on days 25-28) In percentages, this translates to 55-60% humidity for days 1-25, and 70-80% for days 25-28.