Setting Up Your Incubator
Success using an incubator isn’t guaranteed, especially with some of the cheaper models available. Getting good results at hatch time won’t just depend on your
Home > Incubating, Hatching & Brooding Ducks
Articles and guides to help you hatch duck eggs and successfully raise ducklings.
Articles are grouped in topics as follows:
Incubating duck eggs isn’t that different from chicken eggs. Many back garden poultry keepers, like me, start by hatching chicks and then find an interest in keeping ducks, so they incubate some duck eggs.
When I first started incubating duck eggs, I had terrible hatch rates. It can indeed be more difficult to hatch ducklings, but I have found the difficulty is mostly cheap incubators with temperature variations between eggs and incorrect humidity settings.
I tested several different incubators, measuring them with a FLIR Infra-Red camera for temperature distribution. In most cases, you get what you pay for with incubators. I will be publishing a guide to incubators after completing my evaluation this summer.
If, like me, you had reasonable success hatching chicken eggs, then poor results hatching ducklings, I suggest you start by reading my article concerning Incubation Humidity. Humidity is crucial when incubating duck eggs. If you still run into difficulty, then a great way to check you have the right humidity for duck eggs is to use the Egg Weight Loss Method.
Enjoy hatching your ducklings!
Incubating duck eggs is similar to incubating chicken eggs, except the incubation period is longer at 28 days and the humidity is slightly higher. There is an overlap with the Incubating Hatching & Brooding Chicks category, so a few of the articles talk about chicks, but the principles of incubation are the same.
Success using an incubator isn’t guaranteed, especially with some of the cheaper models available. Getting good results at hatch time won’t just depend on your
What is the correct incubation humidity for hatching eggs, and how do we measure it? How to get the right humidity for chicken, duck, goose & quail eggs.
What will you see candling eggs? Pictures and videos of candling chicken eggs at 7 & 14 days of incubation and a useful air sac development chart.
Articles about incubation & hatching eggs artificially in an incubator, raising chicks, and hatching as Mother Nature intended using a broody hen.
A step-by-step guide to hatching eggs with a broody hen. Selecting the right breed and setting up a broody coop for her to incubate fertile eggs.
When things don’t go quite according to plan, try using this incubation troubleshooting guide to work out what went wrong.
In this guide, Gail Damerow will help us to understand why a chick can’t always make it out on its own, why it’s not usually a good idea to intervene, and if you do decide to assist, how to help a chick hatch.
The porosity of eggs varies with size, age and as the season progresses. This article describes egg incubation weight loss for setting the right humidity in your incubator.
In many ways, ducklings are easier to raise than chicks, although if you use the same techniques, you will find they create far more mess because they spend a lot of time emptying both food and water containers into the brooding area!
The articles below will give you a head start. From feeding and raising domestic ducks at home, to caring for wild baby ducks that you might find without a mother, here is everything you need to know to raise ducklings.
This guide is about feeding ducklings, hatched at home in an incubator or under a broody hen. If you arrived here looking for information about
Raising ducklings at home is relatively straightforward. They are more tolerant to disease and with the right equipment, are easier to brood than chicks; however,
Note: This article on how to care for wild baby ducks pertains to wild Mallard ducklings only. Domestic breeds of duck require different types of
Ducklings and Goslings will follow the first moving object they find after hatching. They treat it as their mother. So even if it’s a large man with a big hairy beard, he becomes ‘mum’!
Under the correct conditions, you can store duck hatching eggs for two weeks and still maintain good hatch rates. I have shared my experience of storing eggs before incubation on my smallholding.
Should you clean dirty eggs before incubation? There are different opinions and I have tried incubating both washed and unwashed eggs. If you have some good birds, you may want to sell some hatching eggs. I have put together some tips for selling hatching eggs.
We often take great care of incubation, trying to get as many chicks to hatch as possible, but how much attention do we give to
Do you need to clean hatching eggs? Experts disagree on whether it is necessary. I only wash very dirty eggs. This is how to clean eggs for incubation.
How to sell hatching eggs online. What can you earn? Where are the best places to sell and what guidelines should you follow? Includes tips for buying eggs.
My review of the RCOM King Suro 20 Incubator, which compares features for the price with other incubators in this category.
Review of the RCOM 20 Incubator, available in three different models. I tested the RCOM with both chicken and duck eggs, and here’s what I found.
The Brinsea Hatchmaker can take around 40 eggs and a popular choice with poultry breeders to be used as a separate hatcher for hatching eggs.
Photos and breed profiles for every domestic duck in the British Poultry Standard.
General articles, guides, and information about raising ducks at home or on an allotment.
Articles about incubating, hatching duck eggs and raising baby ducks.
If you’d like a good book, here are my recommendations.