How old can duck eggs be before incubation?

[QueenieBelleB]

I never hatched eggs before. I want to hatch out my cayuga duck eggs. The problem is I get 1 cayuga a day.

My current plan is to collect eggs for 1 week and then place them in the incubator. I olan to keep doing that ubtil my i cubator is full. I will have different weeks of eggs going into the incubator with different hatch rates... I'm trying to get around 20+ eggs in the incubator.

What would you do in this situation?

 

[Noraaaaa]

For best results put them in the incubator 1-5 days after they were laid.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Ducks that hide a nest and brood typically lay eggs for about 2 weeks until they get a full brood and then start incubating them. They typically get excellent hatches, they can stay viable that long or longer. But your storage conditions have a lot to do with how long they stay viable. Most of us do not have ideal storage conditions so viability may drop earlier.

I like your plan of storing them and starting them once a week to get around that issue but that gives you a staggered hatch. That presents a few problems. Your humidity and turning requirements are different during incubation and lockdown. You have decisions to make as to when to adjust these.

Another problem is that when they hatch the ducklings crawl all over the place and smear stuff on the other eggs and in the incubator. They also poop. Since the incubator is warm and humid bacteria can grow in that, killing the other embryos and causing a stink.

The way many people get around these problems is to have two incubators, one for incubating and one for hatching. Not sure if it is worth it to you for your limited hatch.

One way to handle the smearing problem is to build an open topped box (maybe out of hardware cloth) and invert it over each set of eggs to stop them from crawling and smearing. You'll still need to do a thorough cleaning of the incubator between hatches and does not solve the turning/humidity issues but it can be the difference in good late hatches.

Good luck and welcome to the adventure.

 

[FAFOfarm]

I am currently doing a staggered Cayuga hatch. I do have two incubators as well, but I am nervous! Keep us posted!

 

[QueenieBelleB]

I am currently doing a staggered Cayuga hatch. I do have two incubators as well, but I am nervous! Keep us posted!

Everything seems to be going well with incubating. However. I have lost a cayuga hen and I am down only to one hen. I started with 3 in October. I believe both passed due to being eggbound. I should be having my first hatch on March 3rd. I will keep everyone posted. This is my first hatch and my hovabator Genesis is really easy to use.

 

[QueenieBelleB]

Eggs incubating so far. I will be adding a few more eggs in a few more days. Lockdown on the first weeks eggs start tomorrow. I have my second incubator warm and ready.

 

[QueenieBelleB]

4 Eggs piped Saturday afternoon. This morning, I woke up to 3 ducklings hatched and a 4th piped. I assisted with the outer shell on the 4th and then it hatched. I have 4 happy healthy ducklings in the brooder. 5th egg piped before i realized when pulling out the ducklings and assisted outside of shell in case of shrinkwrapped. It is doing fine and chirping.

 

[QueenieBelleB]

I did not anticipate having a low hatch rate. I'm using two hovabator gensis. One for incubation and one for hatching. I also have a thermometer in each so I know the temp and humidity.

I don't think it was the incubator, I think it was the eggs themselves.

Hatch #1 4/6 ducklings out of 6 eggs
Hatch #2 0/6 didn't form or not fertilized
Hatch #3 3/5 ducklings
Hatch #4 ?/5
Hatch #5 ?/3
I have 8 eggs left and I believe some of them are bad.