The unsuccessful incubation of duck eggs
In January 2018 we ran our first ever incubation and managed to hatch a bunch of little baby quail. Whilst they were happily brooding inside the house, we set the incubator again, only this time filled with duck eggs. We had 11 Aylesbury Pekin cross duck eggs sent from a farm in South Wales but we also turned to eBay to purchase 12 Khaki Campbell duck eggs. On the 6th February 2018 the incubator was full of eggs again and we anticipated the smallholding to be happily overrun by ducks, enjoying the pond at the back of the house.
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However, it was at this time that we found out that we were pregnant and our focus and attention took a massive shift. Suddenly, the dream was not to have a garden full of ducks, but to have home full of love, laughter, learning and fun that only a child can bring. We’ve been dreaming of becoming parents for so long and it was finally coming true. It was also at this time that James went back to working away and I started experiencing the not-so-happy side of pregnancy, which didn’t help to bring our attention back to duck eggs in the incubator.
Whilst the quail eggs were super easy to incubate and we had no trouble at all as our fully automated Brinsea Ovation 28 Eco Egg Incubator did all the work, duck eggs were a different ball game. We set them, forgot about them and, unfortunately, they began turning bad. A couple of eggs have exploded right there in the incubator and I can still remember the stench it brought to the house. To make matters worse, at that time I was in my first trimester of pregnancy and super sensitive to smells, dizzy and nauseous at all times so I ended up seriously despising the incubator, the eggs and all our plans for the smallholding. I was never going to incubate again (luckily James talked me back into it and we hatched a handful of chickens later in the year).
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This story ends when James came back home for a weekend and cleaned up all the nastiness the eggs have created (whilst I was out for a really long walk and put the experience down to a lesson learned). Out of all the mess, James managed to save 3 or 4 eggs that felt heavier than others and looked reasonably healthy, so the incubator was still running with a chance of life and it payed off when one little khaki coloured duckling hatched on the 3rd of March 2018.
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