Incubation of duck eggs, incubation period of musky ducks. How to breed chicks in an incubator at home? ⋆ 👨‍🌾 Farmer-online ⋆

Indo-ducks or musky ducks are one of the promising types of poultry. Rapid growth, unpretentiousness and a large meat yield – this is a small list of the advantages of this poultry. Artificial breeding of ducklings in incubators can significantly increase the fecundity of birds and the survival of offspring, reduce the impact of seasonal changes to which Muscovy ducks are not adapted, and successfully produce ducklings throughout the year.

Selection of suitable eggs and storage

The choice of eggs for laying in the incubator is the most important event in the artificial breeding of birds. Eggs are not all the same, therefore, before laying, the first stage of selection of duck eggs should be carried out.

You should pay attention first of all to the form. Indoch eggs have a classic ovoid shape. Material with deviations is not suitable: elongated or, conversely, spherical, asymmetric. Deformation is not allowed.
Next, you need to examine the surface of the shell. Any lime deposits should also be excluded.
The shell color should be white, any deviation towards gray or greenish is a sign of decomposition. Eggs with spotted or speckled shells will not work either.
Small material from young Muscovy ducks has a small supply of nutrients, so the ducklings that come out will lag behind in development. The unnaturally large size of the eggs should also alert, often they have a double yolk. The normal size of a Muscovy duck egg is slightly larger than a chicken egg. Its weight should be about 80 g.
Dirty eggs indicate that they were culled by the ducks themselves, do not distrust nature: this is a sign of poor-quality material, including unfertilized ones.

In no case should you wash the eggs collected for incubation with water, blockage of invisible pores will lead to the death of the embryo. If dirt is still present on the shell, they can be carefully cleaned off with fine sandpaper.

When examining eggs, it is necessary to view them in the light or make a simple device – an ovoscope that allows you to examine their internal structure. For him, an ordinary table lamp is suitable. Inside a healthy egg, there should be an air chamber from the blunt end, and an embryo can be guessed in the center – a denser and darker area. Any turbidity and changes in the structure indicate poor-quality material.

To obtain fertilized eggs, it is necessary that there are up to 5 females per drake on the farm. Ducks rarely sit on nests at the same time, so it is not possible to collect the number of eggs necessary for incubation immediately. It is necessary to collect eggs regularly, so it will be easier to determine the incubation period. Collected eggs can be stored for up to 2 weeks. We must try to create the temperature regime necessary for storage (from 10 to 15 ° C). Humidity is an important parameter, it is optimal to maintain this indicator within 65 – 85%.

Twice a day, eggs selected for incubation must be turned over. For storage, they are placed in one row in cardboard boxes, it is better to place them horizontally. If this is not possible, for example, due to the lack of a box or box of the appropriate size, then with a vertical layout, the eggs are laid down with a blunt end. Some poultry farmers recommend marking the date of egg collection on the shell, this will allow you to meet the deadlines. Naturally, the shorter the shelf life of the material, the greater the chance of breeding a duckling out of it. One week is considered optimal. After 25 days of storage, the result is likely to upset the poultry farmer. The yield of ducklings is unlikely to exceed 8%.

How to choose equipment?

Incubators can be varied. There are many schemes for homemade devices. To do this, use large cardboard boxes, enameled boilers, wooden and metal boxes. There are also many models of industrial production. The most important selection criterion is the placement of heating devices. Their arrangement is considered optimal over egg trays. Often ordinary incandescent lamps are used for this, with their help you can really keep the temperature at the same level quite well. Heating elements are often less effective precisely because of problems with thermoregulation. They slowly heat up and slowly cool down, it is almost impossible to set the required temperature inside the incubator with their help.

In addition to heating elements, the incubator must have ventilation holes. The intensity of ventilation, as well as the degree of heating, must be adjustable. The openings are arranged so that they can be closed when necessary and just as easily opened when required.

Modern automatic incubators are much easier to handle, but this does not mean at all that the incubation process will go without human intervention. Some of the products are supplied with a water tank necessary to maintain the required humidity. There are also models of devices for artificial breeding of chicks, not only with automatic regulation of temperature and humidity, but also with an automatic egg turning device. Such equipment, of course, significantly reduces labor costs, however, its price is quite high. For small summer cottages or even farms, the profitability of an automatic unit is very doubtful.

Terms and mode of incubation

Any construct must be thoroughly disinfected before incubation can begin. In order for the incubation to start correctly, the apparatus must be warmed up immediately before laying. The eggs are laid horizontally. On one side of the shell, a sign must be applied that is necessary for turning the eggs. Most incubators can provide temperature control, but one of the conditions under which incubation proceeds optimally is also air humidity. This indicator is very difficult to control, and even more so to influence it.

The table will help to correctly adjust the temperature depending on the days of incubation.

It is important to periodically cool the masonry. At the first stage – 5 minutes a day, then you can bring up to 30 minutes. For birds, this is normal. The duck periodically leaves the nest to warm up, eat or drink water. The masonry cools slightly, which does not disturb the general course of incubation.

If the air humidity can be regulated, it is better to adhere to the following schedule: 60% – 45% – 75%. Humidity values correspond to the same incubation periods as shown in the table. The steps in the incubation process include the following steps.

At the first stage of the incubation period, the organs of the duckling are formed. Eggs should be turned twice a day at about the same time.
At the second stage, it is important, in addition to the temperature regime, to maintain the ventilation mode. The eggs turn twice a day. In addition, it is desirable to cool them a little by spraying with water through a spray bottle.
In the third week, the eggs also need to be cooled. The embryo is already beginning to maintain its own temperature, and overheating is completely undesirable. However, they should not be overcooled.
The last days are a time of waiting. It is no longer necessary to turn and cool the eggs, but it is necessary to ventilate the incubator.

Embryo Development Control

Embryo development control is a necessary measure. For this, a special device was invented – an ovoscope. However, with some experience, it is possible to study the state of the embryo by viewing it through the light. Each stage of incubation has its own characteristics.

At the end of the first stage of development (the end of the first week of incubation), the emerging network of blood vessels can be seen through the light. The inside of the egg takes on a pinkish hue. If the egg is shaken, one can notice the fluctuation of the shadow of the emerging embryo. If the listed signs of development in the egg in the light or in the ovoscope are not detected, the egg must be removed from the incubator.
The next examination of the state of the embryos must be carried out at the end of the second week. At this stage, the formed embryo should be visible. In its absence, the eggs are also removed.
The last transillumination is carried out 2 days before hatching. With normal development, the inner space of the egg will not shine through, only the air chamber is clearly visible. In this case, one can notice irregularities of the inner edge of the chamber at the place of its contact with the body of the formed duckling.

Hatching ducklings

Breeding an indout using an incubator is a responsible matter, but far from hopeless. However, that’s not all. Having received ducklings, they must be raised, and this will require no less effort. Indo duck ducklings hatch from eggs at about 32 days. At 30-31 days peck appears. Day 33 – the time of the mass exit of ducklings. On the 34-35th day, all ducklings usually appear. At home, in order to breed ducklings, it is necessary for the first time to maintain a temperature for them of about 35 ° C, gradually lowering it to 28 ° C. This can be achieved by leaving the ducklings in the incubator for a while.

When they begin to stand up and move around, it is better to remove them from the incubator into a prepared box with lighting and heating. Where newborn ducklings are placed, it is best to use old newspapers or other paper as bedding. Sawdust or other rapidly absorbing material is not suitable for them at first. When breeding musky ducks, like other birds, one must not forget that a chick, which is a duckling, is already an independent creature. It passed through all the preliminary stages of its development in the egg. Accordingly, having hatched from an egg, he lost not only a relatively safe shelter, but also a supply of nutrients that were spent on his growth.

The hatching of a bird is associated with an urgent need to provide nutrition to the chicks almost immediately after they hatch from the eggs. Even in nature, ducklings almost immediately after hatching, together with their mother, leave the nest and begin to actively feed. You can start feeding artificially bred ducklings with millet, chopped eggs (white and yolk), finely chopped greens.

Common mistakes

Often, failure to breed musky ducks causes non-compliance with some elementary rules. One of the most common mistakes is exceeding the shelf life of eggs before they are placed in the incubator. The poultry farmer, wanting to fill the apparatus as much as possible, lays the stale eggs. The result will be disappointment with a minimum output of ducklings. Experts agree that it is better to run an incubator incomplete than with expired eggs. Ignoring the sanitization of the incubator or the eggs being laid can lead to infection and death of the embryos.

The decision to breed ducklings artificially imposes a huge responsibility on the poultry farmer. If the farmer or summer resident is not ready for this, it is better not to start. Even a seemingly insignificant violation of the incubation regime (too high or, conversely, too low a temperature, lack of ventilation or egg turning) can cause failure. Low temperatures will delay the development of the embryo and may delay the release of ducklings. Too high a temperature is the reason for the appearance of various kinds of acquired deformities, often incompatible with life. Ducklings bred in such conditions soon die.

One of the mistakes is uneven heating of eggs. As a rule, eggs that are on the edge of the tray suffer from this. To avoid this, it is recommended not only to turn the eggs, but also periodically shift them on the tray.

When artificially breeding ducklings in the room where the incubator is located, no work should be carried out using paints and varnishes or other easily evaporating chemicals. Experienced poultry farmers, who account for more than a dozen duck broods, can help with advice in this important matter.

It is obligatory to mark the laid eggs, it is necessary to indicate the period of collection of the egg. The note should be small but noticeable. It will also come in handy when turning eggs.
If laying eggs is planned in the morning, it is better to start the incubator in the evening. This will allow the equipment to fully warm up, as well as identify possible malfunctions and malfunctions that are best addressed before incubation begins. The optimal warm-up time is 5 hours. At this time, it is desirable to maintain a temperature of at least 35°C. This will not only check the health of the equipment, but will also become a kind of study of the features of the heating elements and their interaction with the ventilation holes, which is also best done before laying the eggs.
If the duckling hatches but does not come out of the egg, you can break the shell slightly near the hatching point. In nature, adult birds sometimes slightly help the chicks out of the eggs.
After hatching, ducklings do not need to be transplanted immediately. They are still inactive, and it is better to leave them in the incubator to dry and get stronger for about 4 hours.