Duck incubation temperature11/3/2023 Good broodies are hard to come by so it is best to keep your own flock. The ideal broody is steady, quiet, clean of feather on feet and does not mind being handled. Using a broody hen is a very traditional but effective way of incubating. Normally a clutch takes up to 14/16 days to complete. A few degrees above or below this figure while the clutch is being collected should do no harm to the eggs. A wine cabinet is one option for storing eggs. Eggs should be stored on a tray of sand in a cool place. You should also have a separate bag to carry any obvious addled eggs, the aim is to prevent transfer of harmful bacteria. Take a fresh container with clean straw and soft lining. Notes on the nature and effectiveness of the broody or location of the nest might be kept too.Ĭleanliness is one of the best ways to improve your success with incubating. The species the date incubation started and the anticipated date of hatching should be written down. Notes can be taken on a smartphone too, but hard copy is still a sensible option. Memory, especially with several different species or broody hens sitting, can be embarrassingly unreliable! It is therefore recommended that a simple record (on a card) is kept with each clutch. Egg Collecting, Storage and Record Keeping Some of the smaller teal can be very suspicious of any disturbance and are better left until the clutch is complete. Very small bantam eggs, matched for size and weight, may be an alternative substitute but not always. However, despite this risk, it may be better to leave small duck eggs in the nest rather than exchanging them for dummies. Then, should a predator find the nest, at least some of the eggs may be saved. One method for larger ducks and geese is to take the eggs, as they are laid, and replace them with dummies of near identical size and weight, until the clutch is complete. Geese and swans, where males play a parental role, are frequently more successful. This may influence our decision whether or not to parent rear. It varies from species to species how much involvement drakes, ganders and cobs have in the raising of the family. Males may guard nests some species may even share the incubation. It is particularly obvious in female waterfowl. Going ‘broody’ is a natural phenomenon with nearly all birds that incubate eggs. Sometimes if the first clutch of eggs is taken away, it is possible that the female will lay a repeat clutch in the same season. We may remove eggs because the mother is not a good sitter or is being disturbed by other birds. However, for a number of reasons this is not always practical in captivity. In an ideal world, female waterfowl should incubate their own eggs.
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