Incubation

 

Eggs from penned mallard should be collected daily and dry-cleaned with wire wool. All eggs should be washed for approximately 30 seconds in water at about 130° F. (54~4° C.), using a proprietary egg sanitant such as 'Nusan 2'. After the eggs have been allowed to dry, storage should be similar to that for pheasant eggs, in cool, humid conditions (50-55° F. ~ 10-13° C.~ ) . No turning is necessary for short-term storage, i.e. one week or less. Fumigating the eggs with potassium permanganate and formaldehyde will reduce the chances of impaired hatches due to bacteria on the egg shells.

A large broody hen can comfortably cover 14 to 15 duck eggs, which will usually hatch in about 26-28 days. Nest boxes should be kept damp or the eggs sprinkled with warm water from the l5th to the 24th day, and again at the commencement of hatching.

Although it is often stated that the first 10 days of duck-egg incubation are best carried out under a broody hen, reasonable results can be obtained by setting eggs in incubators for the whole incubation period.

Eggs set in still-air incubators should be turned twice daily for the first 24 days only. In cabinet incubators, transference to hatching trays usually takes place on the twenty-fourth day. The normal practice is to turn the eggs five times a day.

In dry regions, spraying the eggs each day with warm water from the tenth to the twenty-fourth day has given good results, but where atmospheric humidity is normally high - in areas of above-average rainfall - any additional moisture has been detrimental to the hatch. In the incubator room 70 per cent hatches have been obtained from fertile duck eggs in a Hamer P21 incubator, even when only one or two egg trays have been filled. With both water-trays full (except for the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth days), it was not found necessary to spray the eggs.

Candling duck eggs is relatively easy, and should be a routine operation. It should be done at the ten-day stage and again before they are transferred to the hatching trays. There is some evidence to suggest that bad eggs left in the incubator may affect adjoining eggs.

 

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