![]() ![]() This puts the chicks in the correct position for breathing and later for hatching. ![]() The eggs are put in the rack with the air pocket upward. This works well for chicken eggs, but not so well for duck eggs. The automatic turning rack only rocks the eggs back and forth and doesn’t actually turn them over. The incubator that I use for incubation has an automatic turning rack. Turning the eggs Don’t use the automatic turning rack when hatching duck eggs There is also smaller egg turning racks for quail eggs. There is an optional extender ring for the incubator that raises the heating element above the eggs, to use when hatching larger eggs, such as turkey, duck, or goose eggs. The plastic water try can handle more potent cleaning solutions that would dissolve the Styrofoam. I bought the automatic turning rack, and plastic water tray inserts to make cleaning easier. I have the forced air model of the Hova-Bator. Stronger cleaning solutions can damage the styrofoam. Be sure to use a mild soap with hot tap water. Clean your incubator immediately after use, and then before you use it in a new season to ensure good sanitation for your hatch. The longer incubation period for duck eggs means that there is more time for bacterial bloom in the warm humid environment. You can’t bleach it or put any strong chemicals or essential oils on it, without damaging the incubator, so sanitation is essential from the very start. Styrofoam is difficult to clean after the hatch is finished. The Hova-Bator incubator is made of Styrofoam. I hope my experience using the Hova-Bator to hatch duck eggs will help you improve your hatch rates, too. With the more extended incubation period that ducks require, they have a few more challenges to get a good hatch. While baby chicks hatch in 19 to 21 days – bantam chickens hatch sooner – duck eggs take a bit longer, 26 to 28 days for mallard types and 33 to 38 days for muscovies. One incubator for both incubating and hatching wasn’t ideal, so we bought a second Hova-Bator five years later so that we could incubate in one and hatch in the other. Hatching baby chicks is a “gateway drug” to homesteading, so be warned. We purchased our first Hova-Bator 18 years ago for a homeschool science project. Incubating eggs is a fun homeschool project, and the Hova-Bator incubator makes it easy and affordable. The Hova-Bator incubator is an entry-level incubator for homestead and hobby-farm use. Incubating duck eggs in the Hova-Bator incubator Projects that need a continuous hatch of chicks or ducklings should look beyond the available tabletop incubator models to a dedicated full-size Sportsman incubator and hatcher. The Hova-Bator circulated air incubator is the best model for home or hobby farm use, where only a small number of chicks or ducklings are required each year. It was built for classroom use, not home or hobby farm use. Constructed of hard plastic, it is more expensive to purchase. While this model gave more control over temperature and humidity, it was limited to 12 chicken eggs and was too small to adequately incubate large duck eggs. I’ve also used a school model incubator with a built-in wet-bulb thermometer, and dial precision temperature control. While most of the best practices that I’m sharing apply to hatching duck eggs in any small table-top incubator, some are specific to the Hova-Bator forced-air incubators. At Joybilee Farm we hatch both chicks and ducklings using two Hova-Bator circulated air incubators – one for incubating the eggs and one for hatching the eggs. ![]()
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