[goosepimple]

Couple of questions:


Can you add to an incubator, so say you have 6 duck eggs in already and want to put more in, can you do it given the space of course, before the first lot have hatched, or does that upset things?


Can you put duck and goose in the same incubator,  or say hen and goose?  Would they need different settings?


I'm going to be doing some goose eggs this year after the mishaps of letting the geese do it themselves and just wondered. Thanks in advance.

[Clansman]

I do it all the time Amanda, I usually candle after a week or so and take out any clears then fill the spaces with new eggs.

As long as you mark them so you don't get them muddled its not a problem 

There are slight differences recommended for ducks, geese etc but it shouldn't affect your hatch.

I've had pheasant, chicken, duck, quail and parakeet eggs all in the same incubator at the same time! 

[goosepimple]

Brilliant, thanks Stuart! 


Only had 3 goose eggs so far can you believe, I don't know where they're putting them.  We have 2 new females and a male just joined my original trio a couple of weeks back so maybe that's upset them all, not sure, but was looking forward to incubating some for the first time.


Thanks for advice 

[twizzel]

The only difficulty I can see is when the first lot are due to hatch and in lockdown, how can you then keep turning the 2nd batch that are in there? Or need to take out chicks/ducks that have already hatched, but can't because the remaing eggs are in lockdown? Thats the only issue I could foresee.

[Clansman]

I had to Google "lockdown" I'd never heard of it before, looks to be a USA term?

I don't believe it's necessary twizzel

I suppose the theory is good and it may make a difference in numbers for large scale producers but the incubator should be more than capable of restoring temperature and humidity in a short time it takes to add/turn eggs without it affecting the hatch.

if the hens don't do it then I don't think we need to worry about it

[twizzel]

Seems a fairly common thing to me, every piece of info I've read on incubating eggs says to stop turning 3 days before hatch day and keep the lid on to keep the humidity very high. The info sheet I was sent with my first set of duck eggs also said this and they were definitely not american?
Incubating is very different to a hen or duck sitting on them so I don't think you can compare like for like.

[goosepimple]

I expect you're right, bit of luck involved then?  Or any tips for success?

[Clansman]

Seems a fairly common thing to me, every piece of info I've read on incubating eggs says to stop turning 3 days before hatch day and keep the lid on to keep the humidity very high. The info sheet I was sent with my first set of duck eggs also said this and they were definitely not american?

Yep it is common practice, was just the "lockdown" term i'd never come across before.

Incubating is very different to a hen or duck sitting on them so I don't think you can compare like for like.

Actually no its not, its supposed to be the same...

I think we take the whole incubator rule regime a bit too literal sometimes, there is a whole load of warnings out there on the internet about turning eggs as fast as possible before the eggs cool, humidity drops etc

i've read plenty of internet advice where people are told that if the lid is off for over 30 seconds then all the embryos will die! and all sorts of other scaremongering.

The reality is that the chicken, duck, etc are usually pretty good at what they do and when they are naturally sitting on their own eggs they can quite happily wander off for an hour or so before returning to them with no ill effect to the eggs whatsoever.

Not turning the eggs during the last few days I agree with 100%, its accepted hatchery practice the world over.

But opening the lid for a few seconds to turn some younger eggs is not going to harm them in that same three day period.

[goosepimple]

Ah yes, I must say some of our mums do wander off, the ducks especially take their time, have a bath, bit of food, bath again, bit of food, the back to the nest, maybe taking about half an hour sometimes, hens a bit quicker.  I would have tended to have had a more relaxed approach as you suggest Clansman but as you say, 'scaremongering' makes you think you have to be stressed or else 

[HesterF]

I've just got a second incubator which I'm using for hatching. So my first batch was a mixture of duck and chicken eggs. The problem I had after a couple of weeks in the same incubator was that on the same humidity, the chicken eggs were losing too much weight and the duck eggs not enough. So I did transfer the chicken eggs at that point to the second incubator so I could increase the humidity for them and reduce it for the ducks. I then added to the first lot of duck eggs with more duck eggs and some goose eggs. The chicks have hatched so I've now moved the first lot of duck eggs over to the second incubator for hatching end of this week. It does mean they can go into lockdown, high humidity setting during hatching that would not work for normal incubating (particularly early goose eggs which struggle to lose the weight anyway - thick shells).

I think ducks and goose eggs probably work OK together - I'm running it dry and they seem to be on course weight wise (although after five days the duck eggs are looking fab, I can't see a thing in the goose eggs  ). But I do think goose eggs are harder to hatch than either chicken or duck eggs so I think you have to be more careful with them. It's mainly to do with them losing enough weight to allow the goslings to hatch.

As for the wandering off thing, yes, broodies do but they don't disappear off at hatching time. As soon as the little ones have internally pipped, a good broody sits tight until they're all out in my limited experience. I know that opening an incubator mid-hatch can rapidly reduce humidity so if they've pipped externally the membrane can suddenly dry enough to halt the hatch (in fact it happened to me on Saturday when I decided to remove the three chicks that were dancing all over the three pipped eggs which then stopped all their progress immediately - I left it a few hours and then decided to intervene and they were all fine but they did need help). So, yes, you can be relaxed throughout most of the incubation but that critical hatching time is what you need to watch for and you do need to turn goose eggs manually so if you've got chicken eggs hatching at the same time as goose eggs are only 3 weeks gone, I think that could be a problem. It's also hard to try and time the hatch together because goose eggs can hatch any time from 28 to 32 days whilst chicken eggs are far more timely.

So adding new eggs later has been fine so far but the hatching phase is what you need to think through.

[goosepimple]

Thanks Hester - I think I read somewhere (or maybe my head is making it up) that you should turn goose eggs nose to tail way so to speak (flipping over) as opposed to keeping the egg in the same direction and turning it on it's side - am I making sense? 

[HesterF]

I think that's true of all eggs except most you don't bother turning manually if they're already on a cradle. It's just goose eggs are supposed to benefit from the complete 180 degree turn which you don't get in an incubator (according to Chris Ashton's book which is my bible). You can turn side to side but you need to make sure you turn them one way and then back the same way again so the cordy thing (whose name I still can't remember - chXXXXXX) doesn't just get spun round and round the same way. So you can put an arrow on either side of the egg pointing in the direction you have to turn it or you can just do it end over end. I always turn over the blunt end so I know I'm just going back and forth end over end (both daily when they're stored since I keep goose eggs on their side and once they're incubating). Having said all of that I have had absolutely zero success with goose eggs so far and think I'm about to bin yet another batch from the incubator so what do I know  ?

[goosepimple]

Our geese have hatched their own twice, once with success and once they stood all over them and killed them    and then last year the people looking after our place brought their dog and it ate the eggs on the nest    so I'd like to try and incubate some for backup this year. 


I sold one of our ganders to Jaykay and with the money bought a second hand incubator here on TAS, so ready to go .... except I only have 3 goose eggs on the nest at the moment and I'm actually not sure if either of the other 2 females are laying at all 

[sokel]

The only time I have added eggs was when I already had duck eggs in the incubator and then added Bantam eggs later but I worked it out so that both lots of eggs where ready for hatching the same day so turning was stopped and humidity raised . all of the duck eggs hatched and all but 1 of the bantam eggs hatched

[chrismahon]

I was reading an American book the other day where they recommend letting the incubating eggs cool every day to mimic the hen getting off the nest to feed. Can't agree with that being necessary or advisable, but they claimed good hatch rates with it. But eggs can go off the heat for many hours and still be OK. The delicate period is the first 6 days when any cooling can result in losses. A sitting hen will stay tight on the eggs during this initial period.


We add to an incubator then remove the eggs as required to another incubator set up for hatching -lower temp, higher humidity and no turning. We once kept topping up regularly but found bacteria built up in the incubator and we started getting dead embryos. So we broke off and disinfected the incubator which solved the problem. So I would advise adding only once or twice. Then you have the problem of integrating the chicks and in our experience if the age difference between batches is more than 7 days it can't be done without injuries.