How Long Does It Take To Incubate A Duck Egg?

Incubating and hatching duck eggs is vitally important if you want to keep your flock growing should the breed you are keeping be excellent layers, but lousy sitters.

Some duck breeds both lay and sit their eggs well, but that is definitely not always the case. In such circumstances, investing in a quality incubator and learning how to use it properly to hatch duck eggs will be your only option to bring your own ducklings into the world.

Guides to hatching chicken eggs abound on the internet. Odds are many homesteaders and farmers where you live could easily offer valuable tips on the chicken egg hatching process from start to finish.

Although ducks and chickens are both poultry birds, there are distinct differences in the hatching process for each respective type of egg.

There is no special incubator for use on duck eggs. Nearly all standard incubators can also accommodate duck eggs. Jumbo Pekin duck hen legs could probably be the only issue in incubators with trays that have egg openings that are positioned too close together or too narrow in diameter.

I raise Pekin and Jumbo Pekin hens, and have yet to have any real issue keeping them firmly in place in an typical off the shelf chicken egg incubator.

Either the large incubator shown in the photo above with egg opening style trays or the smaller incubator below that have open trays, can be easily used to incubate duck eggs.

The incubation period for duck eggs varies at least slightly by breed. It takes Pekin duck eggs about 28 days to hatch. Muscovy duck eggs typically take up to 35 days to hatch. This 28 to 35 day time frame should help guide you through the incubation process. Do not expect a duck egg to hatch at 21 days like a chicken egg or give up on a duck egg before the 35 (to even 38) day mark.

The duck egg incubation period begins as soon as the egg is laid. If you do not collect eggs every day and the hen refuses to sit, the viability of the egg is greatly reduced. If the duck hen attempts to sit the egg and/or the weather is fairly warm, a two or sometimes three day old egg might remain viable enough to hatch in an electric incubator.

This is a hotly debated question among duck keepers. An automatic turning arm or rack negates the need to for manual turning of the eggs multiple times per day.

Because duck eggs are much more susceptible to negative effects from humidity changes (even extremely brief ones) than chicken eggs, an automatic turning arm prevents the need to open the incubator lid multiple times per day to turn the eggs.

This reason alone was enough to convince me that purchasing incubators with an automatic turning arm was the best way to go.

An automatic turning rack does not actually turn the eggs, but rocks them back and forth.

While this is ideal for chicken eggs, which requires the air pocket turned upward to best facilitate breathing inside the egg, folks who do not favor automatic turning arms are concerned this type of positioning place the larger duck eggs too close to the heating element in the incubator.

Fluctuations of just five degrees on any part of the duck egg can cause significant hatching problems.

I have had average to above average duck egg hatching rates in my incubators that boast automatic turning arms. But, some folks garner equally good results in incubators that do not have an automatic turning arm or tray function and swear by them with equal vigor.

Regardless of whether or not you choose to buy an incubator with an automatic turning arm or not, mark an “X” on each egg to help keep track of how the egg moves throughout the day.

Duck eggs must shift position at least four times a day either manually or automatically to rotate them properly and increase the likelihood of hatching.

To successfully incubate duck eggs the humidity level should remain between 55 to 65 percent at all times. If the incubator has a “wet bulb” thermometer, it should read between 85 to 88 degrees to achieve proper humidity levels.

When attempting to incubate duck eggs laid by older hens, it is sometimes helpful to increase the relative humidity level to 75 percent (or 92 to 94 degrees F on a wet bulb thermometer) because such eggs are often far more porous.

Because incubating duck eggs requires a higher humidity level than hatching chicken eggs, it is not recommended to attempt to place both types of eggs in an incubator at the same time. Also, the increased humidity level and time frame for hatching duck eggs can increase the chances for bacteria to bloom to occur.

I have often had the best duck egg incubation hatch rates when keeping the humidity level between 45% to 55% for the initial 25 days, and then increasing it to 65% for just the last three days

The incubator should always be warmed to 98 degrees before placing the freshly laid duck eggs inside.

Duck eggs should be incubated at a temperature that ranges from 99.3 to 99.6 degrees F. The growing duckling embryos will cause the temperature to increase inside the incubator during the last week to 10 days before hatching.

Because of this natural temperature increase during the final stage of duck egg incubation, more frequent monitoring of the temperature becomes necessary. If the temperature inside of the incubator is not adjusted appropriately during this time frame the danger of the duckling embryos increases substantially.

As the duckling embryo grows inside of the egg, water loss from the egg itself occurs. During this same phase of the duckling hatching process, the air cell inside of the egg grows.

When a duckling is developing as it should, the air cell should encompass roughly one-third of the interior space of the egg 25 days into the process.

If the duckling embryo is developing properly, the egg should feel approximately 14 percent lighter than it did when it was first placed in the incubator.

Duck eggs are being kept for a short time to garner enough to at least partially fill the incubator. Although it is far better to use fresh fertilized eggs for incubating to increase chances of success, they can be kept for about one week to 10 days before the chances of hatching are too significantly decreased to bother trying to save them.

If you happen to find a duck egg in a nesting box, coop, run, or in the flock’s free ranging area, candle it to help determine its viability before either pitching the egg or saving it.

For the best hatching ratio results, all fertilized duck eggs should be placed in the incubator within three days of being laid.

Always look the duck eggs over carefully before placing them in the incubator. It will become rapidly clear if you have placed a cracked or rotten egg into the machine.

The bacteria that seeps out from a cracked egg will not only stink to high heaven, but can contaminate the interior of the incubator, and cause harm to the existing good eggs.

Incubators can cost as little as $65 yo $85 for a small and basic model with an automatic turning arm. A larger egg incubator with a lot of bells and whistles can run between $100 to $150.

The larger the incubator the more electricity it will use – which can be a deterrent for homesteaders living off grid. If the ducklings being hatched will be part of a homesteading business, the cost of the incubator and the electricity used to operate it may be a tax deductible expense.

Ducklings and chicks can easily be kept in the same brooder, but not the same incubator because of the different humidity requirements to ensure successful hatching.

If you do everything right with the duck eggs during the first and last five days of the incubation period, odds are the success rate of the hatching will be roughly 50%. If you are really lucky, and follow all of the egg collection and incubator protocols exactly, expect about a 70% hatch success rate.

Duck eggs are simply a bit more susceptible to humidity and temperature changes than chicken eggs – making successful hatch rates almost always lower. I have known excellent duck breeders who have incubated copious amounts of eggs, who get no more than an 80% successful hatch rate.

Do not be discouraged if only a handful of your duck eggs hatch in the incubator after the first few attempts. This is really normal and the number of duck eggs hatched successfully should increase at least slightly the better you get to know your incubator.

Keeping good records of the egg collection and incubation process truly will help you improve your hatching success rate over time. >Make sure the duck hens and drakes are consuming enough protein and calcium.

Game bird feed instead of more typical backyard chicken feed can help increase the protein levels in the flock, as will free ranging for insects.

Tara lives on a 56 acres farm in the Appalachian Mountains, where she faces homesteading and farming challenges every single day. her homesteading skills are unmatched, she raises chickens, goats, horses, a wide variety of vegetables, not to mention she’s an expert is all sorts of homesteading skills such as hide tanning, doll making, tree tapping and many, many more.

Or skip all that and let your ducks do it. We have hatched out 30 this year already….from golden hybrid and runner ducks from Metzger farms bought last year….they are doing great….and I don’t have to Hassel with any of this…just sell the ducklings…and know in the shtf I can still hatch ducks

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How Long Does It Take To Incubate A Duck Egg?