ZeaglerDuckFarm.com

I am not a professional hatchery, and I am not a veterinary.

This is just what I have learned over the years and no way recommending anyone do it, this is my own personal thoughts and wisdom, my trial and errors, and so let me make that clear.

Incubators, I prefer the hova-bator made by GQF, I have tried homemade incubators, still air incubators, and have a GQF cabinet incubator, 2 hova-bator genesis Styrofoam, and one hova-bator wafer temp control but all circulated air flow fans, but I have had better hatch success with hova-bator circulated air fan models.

If you wake up one day and say “Oh, I want to hatch some eggs”, stop and Google hatching eggs, and research incubators and instructions!!

I follow the suggested instructions with hatching chicken eggs, but with duck eggs, I took and in the bottom of two of my Styrofoam hova-bator the drain excess holes, I took some clear silicone and filled all them holes in the bottom only, this gave me better humidity with control and I could reach the desired and maintained humidity level I wanted with waterfowl eggs.  Duck eggs are so much larger than chicken eggs, they hatch differently.  No, I don’t sprits the eggs unless, I drop humidity due to the heater on in house, in the winter drinking the moisture out the air, or see my humidity has drastically dropped, then I add water and sprits 3 or 4 times that day, yes, I use a automatic egg turner. The egg turner was made for Chicken eggs, but I have not had a turkey or goose egg that didn’t fit, now yes they might take up a extra hole, because  you don’t want them touching. 

Yes, I have tried sponges, that failed trying to keep up the humidity for me, and if you are opening and closing that incubator 4 times a day to spray or sprits water, your messing with the recommendations for a good hatch, you are throwing your constant level all out of balance.

Collecting eggs for hatching, I have an extra turner on my kitchen table; I collect my eggs for 10 days, and place in the turner, while collecting.

On chicken, turkey or any bird egg, I do nothing; I collect and place in the automatic turner. 

 Geese, duck, and any water fowl eggs, I sprits them with warm/tepid water twice a day in the automatic turner, there air yolk sac will dry out killing that embryo. 

Every time I take that load out of that turner on my kitchen table and load into turner in the incubator, I have an old mean green style spray bottle of ¾ water, ¼ cup bleach, and approximately ¼ cup of dial liquid soap mixed, and I spray that turner let sit 5 or 10 minutes and with a standard kitchen scrub bristles brush clean in the cracks top and bottom of the egg cup trays. I do the same for my incubators, yes I spray the fan, wafer, wires, and everything, and I then scrub them well, spray with my kitchen sink nozzle, and turn down to dry.

I have found that bacteria is the killer 99 percent of the time, it has been a lesson well learned.

No, I don’t wash my eggs, that duck don’t wash them before she sits on them in that same nest I get them out of most time they wallow out the pine straw nest then end up burring them down in the dirt.  I read in many places, not to use dirty eggs, just discard them they would infect all eggs, well, again try it yours self, take some dirty eggs and gently with tepid water and dial soap, wash them, mark them, don’t wash a row of dirty eggs, and etc., see how your hatch works. The duck egg has a protected film over it, you can almost fill it when wet, now I have took a wire brillo pad, no, not a SOS pad, but plain steel wool pad, and gently rubbed over eggs to knock the dry harden dirt off gently. No, I don’t wear gloves when handling my eggs, but I don’t handle them much either. I collect them and then in the turner they go.  Yes, I would say be gentle when collecting and don’t let them roll and bump each other in a bucket, I collect my eggs in an egg carton, just like at the grocery store that you buy eggs in.  Now if you don’t have an extra turner, collect and store them in an egg carton, and when you make your coffee flip them, and when you are cooking supper flip them again, and do this for 10 days or until you get your egg collection to set incubator. DON’T MIX DUCK EGGS AND CHICKEN EGGS AND DIFFERENT EGGS IN A HATCH, they all hatch at different times or amount of days and they all require different humidity. Yes, I tried it, and watched my days on a calendar, and had a empty incubator set up just for hatch out time, but you are again, opening and closing that incubator, you have different humidity levels.

Yes, when they slow down and have delayed egg production, I have took up to 15-20 days placing them in egg turner to get enough to load incubator, the chicken eggs, this didn’t affect as much, but in waterfowl eggs, it will caused scattered and delayed hatches.

The most important thing I have learned is to candle those eggs, you can go on YOUTUBE and or Google EGG CANDLING, that is how I learned, but in 10 days if collected eggs for 10 days, those eggs should have little veins all in them, take out the clear ones or the ones with dead embryo’s it will have a black spot in it, and  there is nothing worse than a oozing or exploding rotten egg and that bacteria will get down into that Styrofoam and kill your hatches!!! DON’T ADD EGGS TO THEM EMPTY SLOTS!!

The other most important thing is KEEP THAT LID CLOSED!! Put water in every 3-days or however many days in your climate it requires, go to Wal-Mart they have Springfield Digital Humidity and Temperature Monitors for $6, they work on a AAA battery, DON’T submerse them in water, spay and clean just like you egg turner, but they are warranted, and I have sent them off to be replaced plenty of times, they do honor their warranties.  No, I don’t weigh my eggs, or all that other crap I have read, I don’t have time, I live in the real world.  A CONSTANT HUMIDITY AND TEMPERATURE in my opinion is the true key. When they go to hatching, they are okay in there for up to 3 days, leave them alone, they actually help the others by rolling the eggs and quacking for the others to hatch on out. I know it is tempting, but it will cause you misery and failed hatches!!  Now after they go to hatching and I take those hatched out, I do take a egg or two out and candle to see what is going on with the unhatched eggs, but keep the lid CLOSED, take the egg out quickly and replace them quickly when you open that lid, also, when you are taking those eggs out of turner the last 3 days before hatch, be gentle you can knock the duck or etc. a loose from the cell sack, and kill it.  Now, those slow hatchers I candled if still moving and alive, but not ready to hatch, I just let them alone for 3-4 more days, then check them again if not hatched, and over all I give them total of 2 wks to hatch. Now if they are still not hatched, but are down in the egg hollow large end of the egg and I seee there beak and here peeping or might not hear peeping, but that beak trying to hit that shell and out of the air sac and I think they are struggling and I want to try and save them, I take a long metal screw, and tap that end of the egg, and look in, but candle that egg and see where that duck is positioned in that egg, and if it broke the air sac, if it is just not ready there is still yolk not adsorbed, I keep that egg and sac sprits and moist, if it dries it will smother that duck, and spritsing helps the stimulate the yolk to asorb,  now if that egg yolk sack is absorbed and the duck is just struggling, I take that screw and break that air sack just enough where that ducks bill is positioned for it to breath, don’t drown them sprit zing, a duck will drown.

A momma duck that hatches their babies, the oil from their feathers coat their babies and help them be water proof to prevent drowning, but if they hatch in a incubator they will drowned in a dish of water, they don’t have that water proof oil on them from that momma.   

Let me see what else I can share with you, oh yeah, temperatures and humidity levels, now again this is my personal opinion and technique, and in hova-bator circulated air incubators:

I hatch on one temperature my hova-bator genesis is preset on one temperature 100 F degrees, not 99. 5 not 99.7 but 100 F degrees

Chickens hatch on 21 days and 55% humidity and 65 % at hatch

Duck eggs for standard domestic ducks, Khaki Campbell, Pekin, Mallards and etc. hatch on 28 days, the Muscovy hatch on 35 days, wild water fowl and call ducks usually, on 26  to 28 days and I set them on 60-65 % humidity and 3 days before hatch I raise the humidity to 80-85%, In my location and climate I leave my vent plugs in at all times, except if there is moisture bead development on the underneath side of my incubator windows, then I remove a plug to drop the humidity there for drying of those moisture beads, and replace my plug, NO, I don’t open and prop up my incubator top, or open and fan once a day.  And Once you take any egg out the turner for the last three day hatch process, NO, don’t hand turn them, the baby has to turn and position in a mommy’s belly, well so does that baby in that egg.  Think outside the box with hatching, a egg is a live embryo, it breathe’s through that shell, a baby in a womb gets oxygen from the mothers blood flowing through to it.

Shipped eggs, well I have not had any luck with eggs I bought and had shipped to me, I do sell and ship eggs, and 98% of my customers have pretty good hatch rates.  But try it yourself again, package up some cheap local eggs or your own eggs, haul them around in the trunk of your car for 3 days then take them out unpack them and let them rest 12 hours, then you hatch your own eggs, and see your outcome.  Shipped eggs have in my opinion several down sides, and things to watch for in egg advertisements, first does the seller:

• How did the post office handle, transfer, and deliver the eggs?

Now, I purchased some eggs off of the internet auction site, you know the ones, and I received them wrapped in wads of bubble wrap and taped all up and had to try and be gentle but almost drop the egg getting it untapped, well heck you have just jarred and disruppted that already in stress shipped egg, then unpacked to let set 12 hours, and did all the proper steps and I am a experienced hatcher, NOT ONE, and I DO MEAN NOT ONE, hatched, so I found the breed, duck or bird I wanted and bought.  But, in the listings, not responsible, can’t help how the PO handles your eggs, etc., well what if the eggs are clear, and never showed signs of development? That is your layers fault and no one else’s, am I correct?? But oh no, no, so I just really try to know the seller before I buy shipped eggs. Now, I had some broken eggs received that I sold, and I have made good on my eggs, no matter who’s fault it is, I am like BURGER KING, you are the customer and I do it the right way and your way, (laughing).  So, now think about this, again think outside that box:

• Buy eggs, seller packs up the eggs and takes to the PO, or the PO picks them up from their home.

• The eggs road on a day long bumpy mail route with the carrier, they arrive at the PO, they are unloaded, and taken in to the PO, and they processed and sorted and tossed over in the package bin.

• The 18 wheeler mail truck picks the mail up at 4:30 pm and loads up on that truck, then travels for my area 250 miles to Atlanta, were the mail is unloaded again, processed and sorted and either if within the state, put in pile for pick up to be loaded onto another big mail truck to go to the customer designated PO for sorting and processing then load into mail carrier vehicle for delivery, but the customer is in CA andI am in GA.

• Those eggs are now thrown onto a conveyer belt and going into another big truck with packages to head to the airport.

• At the airport they are thrown onto another conveyer belt leading from that truck to the cargo of the airplane, now they are in the air.

• They arrive at the destination airport put on a conveyer belt leading from the plane to the truck being loaded.

• Now the eggs in that large mail truck are taken to the destination main PO for that state, and unloaded.

• Now processed and sorted again, put onto another truck to go to the buyers PO distributor, unloaded, sorted and processed.

• Now they are in the mail carriers vehicle being delivered.

• WOULD YOU HATCH?? 

• Well me and my local post office Post master, talked about this process, and I am not going to tell you my secret, (laughing), but if you buy my eggs, you will be amazed at how they arrive, no joke, Misty and the staff at ADRIAN POST OFFICE, are just wonderful, they help me in so many ways it is unreal, they go over and beyond what I do believe there job requirements are with me. They don’t ask for extra money or tips to help me with my egg customer’s packages!!   I ship eggs and lives, and they are just great, and you can go to USPS to find out, read, research the requirements and regulations on shipping eggs or live birds. It’s not hard to research and Google to learn on anything.

I usually turn my incubators off in October, it is extremely hard for me to keep a regular temperature in the house in winter, one day its hot, one day its cold, one day it’s raining, one day it’s not, and again constant temperatures and humidity is the key to a successful hatch, a basic home child style humidifier will help in the room or area where you have your incubators set up at in winter while running heat, but that temperature control setting on the wall has to stay set at a constant setting.

Yes, I suggest and use a broody hen before an incubator.

Okay hope this helps you with some of your questions, oh and remember your not a HATCHERY, they have high tech equipment and constant control with their environments, and professional hatchers. Don’t beat yourself up on failed hatch rates, it comes with experience and trial and error, just keep trying.

But most of all that I, ME, MYSELF has found for troubled or failed hatches, Temperature, Humidity, Bacteria, and the quality of the egg!!