I have to be honest I LOVE EGGS. Every morning with out fail, I have two with one or some times two sliced of toast soft boiled. But then if it takes my fancy poached or scrabbled.
Even better are duck eggs and I am pleased to say our ducks lay just about all year round. We do however love to eat chicken and with all the mouths we feed, from ourselves to helpers. The more we produce the better. So we hatch out what we can each year with incubators. One of which John built a few years ago and has served us really well. We have had it stored in one of the sheds over winter and we got it out a week or two ago. We have cleaned it out put a new hinge on it and turned it on. Only to find the heating element had finally stopped working. Some what frustrating, as we wanted to get some eggs in and on the go.
It takes fertilized chicken eggs 21 days to hatch, most duck eggs take 28 days, apart from Muscovy ducks. As a general rule of thumb, the eggs of Muscovy ducks take 35 days, but once again, it can vary slightly depending on conditions and the bread. Geese are the same.
This year we have built arcs for the geese, well I should say helpers / good friends Graham and Jane built them. Whats great is they are using them and are already sat on clutches of eggs. We hope by the end of the month that they have hatched, along with what we now have in the repaired incubator.
We also bought another sat of parts to build a second. Which will also hold up to a hundred eggs. I have put the link to the site below as I am sure some people would love to give things ago. They even come with instructions on how to build it and even if you have limited DIY skills, I am sure people can build one or even find something they can use to make one.
With incubators costing in the region of €100 to €200 plus depending on the size it's well worth giving things a go.
So I am now hand turning eggs four or five times a day and checking on the temperature and water level to make sure we have the humidity. Three days before they are due to hatch, I will stop doing this and start putting my ear against the box in the hope I can hear peeping lol. The excitement in the house when some one hears that first pip pip. You find your self looking in the glass all the time in the hope you see the first chick push it's way out of it's shell. There is nothing like it.
So with over 30 eggs in or under something I will not count on anythink untill it hatches have a great week.
Love and blessings Karen
http://www.strangfordincubators.com/