Turkey and duck eggs take longer than chicken eggs — 28 days, and a full 35 for Muscovy ducks. The settings are similar to chickens, but the differences — humidity, cooling and turning dates — decide how many hatch.
Preparing the eggs
- no older than 7 days, stored at 12–15 °C, turned once a day if stored longer than 3 days;
- no cracks, normal shape, average weight for the breed;
- duck eggs are often dirty: collect them early in the morning, before the ducks trample the nests;
- don’t wash eggs in cold water: it draws dirt in through the pores. Heavily soiled eggs are better not set.
Turkey eggs
| Days | Temperature | Humidity | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1–25 | 37.5–37.6 °C | 55–60% | Turn at least 4–6 times a day |
| 26–28 | 37.2 °C | 70–75% | Stop turning, wait for the hatch |
Turkey eggs are speckled and harder to candle: you need a bright, narrow beam. Check on days 8, 14 and 25. Poults hatch more slowly than chicks and afterwards are especially sensitive to finding feed and water (why turkey poults die).
Duck eggs
| Days | Temperature | Humidity | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1–13 | 37.8 °C | 60–65% | Turn 4–6 times a day |
| 14–25 | 37.5 °C | 55–60% | Cooling and misting once or twice a day |
| 26–28 | 37.2 °C | 75–80% | No turning, hatch |
Muscovy ducks incubate for 35 days: the same stages shift, and turning stops on day 31–32. Moulards hatched from Pekin eggs follow the Pekin settings.
Why duck eggs are cooled
A duck egg is rich in fat, and in the second half of incubation the embryo produces more heat than it needs. In nature the duck leaves the nest and returns with wet feathers. So from day 14 the incubator is opened once or twice a day for 10–20 minutes, until the shell feels just warm, and the eggs are misted with warm water. The procedure is described in detail in incubating goose eggs — for ducks it’s the same, only shorter.
Hatching
Ducklings and poults take longer than chicks to pip and get out, sometimes more than a day. Don’t help them out early: if the blood vessels in the membrane haven’t dried, the chick will bleed to death. Don’t open the incubator unnecessarily — a drop in humidity glues the membrane to the chick.
What to expect
A good home result for turkey and duck eggs is 65–80% hatched of eggs set. If it’s lower, analyze by when embryos died, as in incubation mistakes.
Each species, its own calendar
In EggPulse an incubation batch records the bird species, and candling and stop-turning dates follow from it. With turkeys, ducks and chickens in one incubator that’s especially handy: the calendars differ, and the reminders won’t get mixed up.
