. Occasionally, of course, there will be sales of duck eggs in
comparatively large lots for incubation purposes where someone is
starting a duck farm. Occasionally also duck farmers buy from each other
a few eggs for incubation in order to secure new blood. On the whole,
however, practically all of the eggs laid are incubated and it is
necessary to have an incubator capacity sufficient to take care of the
eggs as they are produced during the flush season.
Since the egg production at this time will run around about 80% and
since the period of incubation is 28 days and a couple more days must be
allowed to take the ducklings out of the machines and to clean up the
machines, it is necessary to figure on 30 days between hatches. To take
care of the flush production at this time there would be required an
incubator capacity of from 20 to 25 eggs per head of breeding ducks. The
latter figure is a safer estimate than the former. Of course, eggs
sufficient to fill the entire incubator capacity are not put in the
machines at any one time but different lots are put in as soon as a
sufficient number is obtained to make it worth while. There will be,
therefore, eggs in various stages of incubation in different sections of
the machines at the same time. While Pekin duck eggs will run about 1/2
heavier in weight than hens' eggs they do not take up a proportionately
greater amount of space in the incubator. An incubator tray will
accommodate about 5/6 as many Pekin duck eggs as it will hens' eggs.
_Age of Hatching Eggs._ Duck eggs should be set as often as enough are
secured to fill one or more trays in the incubator or enough to produce
a sufficient number of ducklings to utilize brooding space to advantage.
Since duck eggs deteriorate more rapidly than hens' eggs they cannot be
kept so long before they are set. It is best not to save them for longer
than one week. During the season of flush production it is not, of
course, necessary to save them that long since enough eggs will be
secured to set each day if desired. The usual practice at this time is
to set twice a week. During the early part of the season when the
production of eggs is low and the temperature cool the eggs are often
saved for as long a period as two weeks without noticeably bad results.
_Care of Hatching Eggs._ Eggs for hatching should be kept in a cool
place. Any place suitable for keeping hens' eggs for hatching is a
suitable place for duck eggs. The temperature should be from 50 deg. to 70 deg.