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Wednesday, 22 April 2020

Duck Eggs In The Incubator

Using the incubator again! 

The last hatch a friend did at his house. He had runner ducks in there and I had Muscovy in as well. Unfortunately none of my dozen eggs hatched, luckily some of his did so it wasn't a complete failure (for him at least).


So this time I've gone for Aylesbury ducks. I'm hopeful that having some meat ducks will help vary what we produce a bit and if we keep some for breeding we should have some duck eggs.

I did have a minor disaster with them in the fact that the eggs wouldn't fit in the carriers so had to rapidly order some bigger ones, which fit the eggs just fine.

I'm currently thinking when grown they'll live in the pig sty that has never been used for pigs - but this could change yet! And young ducks have different requirements to my chickens.

I got the eggs in exchange for a homemade bird box so hopefully a good deal for both parties!

I decided to make two bird boxes - one for the the eggs and one to go on my workshop! 
This time I'm going for a "dry hatch" with no added water in the incubator until right near the end. It's what I've been advised to do so I'm hoping for better results this time!

Anyone else hatching duck eggs this year? Any tips?

4 comments:

  1. Not hatching any ducks this year (just got 15 runners in the mail), but will be interested in how your ‘dry hatch’ turns out. I have three dozen heritage turkeys in the incubator at the moment. Good luck!

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    1. I've never wanted to do turkeys, To be honest the size my chickens got this year they were as big as the turkey we had at christmas anyway!

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  2. I have always wanted ducks, but have not had the opportunity to try. Looking forward to living vicariously through you.

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    1. We had a few on the farm growing up but they were just pets really. Messy messy pets!

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