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Ducks, Farm Machine, Reviews
Top 6 Best Incubator for Duck Eggs Reviews (2022 Updated)
It takes more effort to make homemade incubators for duck eggs than chicken or bird eggs. You have to precisely control the temperature and the humidity in 28 days to reach a perfect hatching result.
Hence, I have shortlisted the best incubator for duck eggs to make this job easier for you. Each incubator below is slightly different from others in features and ability, so please pick the one that best suits your needs. Don’t blindly trust any recommendations!
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Top 6 Best Incubator for Duck Eggs 2022
| Product Image | Product Name | Features | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
  | Harris Farms Nurture Right 360 | Best Fully Automatic Duck Egg Incubator | See latest Price |
  | Magicfly Digital Mini Fully Automatic Egg Incubator | Best Price | See latest Price |
  | Brinsea Products Mini II Advance Automatic 7 Egg Incubator | Best for Visibility | See latest Price |
  | KEBONNIXS Egg Incubator with Humidity Display | Great Incubator with Egg Candle | See latest Price |
  | HovaBator Genesis 1588 Advanced Egg Incubator Combo Kit | Best for Compatibility | See latest Price |
  | Farm Innovators 4250 Digital Circulated Air Incubator | Best Commercial Duck Egg Incubator | See latest Price |
In-depth 6 Top Rated Duck Egg Incubators Reviews
1. Harris Farms Nurture Right 360 – Best Fully Automatic Duck Egg Incubator
Hold up to:
- 22 chicken eggs
- 12-18 duck eggs
- 22-24 pheasant eggs
This automatic duck egg incubator comes from Harris Farms – a worldwide well-reputed brand that many aviculturists trust and use. This nurture incubator can hatch from 12 to 18 duck eggs. Besides, you can use it to hatch chicken, quail, and pheasant eggs.
This Harris Farm machine is the best incubator for duck eggs because it contains all the necessary features for hatching duck eggs.
First, you can easily control the temperature and humidity on the top LED screen. From my experience, the temperature range should be within 99.3 – 99.6oF and the humidity should be 45-55% for the first 25 days, then increase to 65% in 3 days before hatching.
The 360-degree induced airflow helps maintain constant temperature and humidity inside, creating a nature-like environment to ensure that 100% of eggs are successfully hatched.
Besides, you don’t have to manually turn eggs or turn off the machine during the duck egg incubation time. The automatic Egg Turner will ease this process to increase the hatch rate.
3 days before the hatch day, the Nurture Right 360 will stop the machine. You can check the hatching status thanks to the crystal-clear 360-view window.
Despite its features and egg capacity, there are two drawbacks of this incubator. First, it is slightly expensive, which is not suitable for first-time aviculturists with a limited budget. Second, it can be used only with the power supply provided in the product package.
Check more Top 7 Best Quail Incubator here!
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2. Magicfly Digital Mini Fully Automatic Egg Incubator – Best Price
Specs:
- Hold up to 9-12 eggs (depends on the egg size)
- Available for chickens, ducks, fowl, geese, etc
Starting to hatch farm duck eggs can be costly and challenging. You should choose an affordable, multi-functional incubator to get the job done without breaking your bank account.
This small incubator from MagicFly is an ideal start for first-time aviculturists. It can contain 9 to 12 duck eggs at a time with the dimensions of 1.4 x 2 inches. Besides duck eggs, you can utilize it to hatch a wide variety of eggs, including chicken eggs, fowl eggs, geese eggs, and so on.
This digital egg incubator is compact with 13.98 x 6.89 x 7.48 inches and a weight of 4.8 pounds. You can put this machine anywhere on your farm without taking too much space or move it around your property for frequent checks.
Besides, it has a simple structure and is made of durable PP and ABS materials. You can control or adjust the thermostat at any time using the knobs and LED digital screen.
Another reason that makes this digital auto incubator an excellent choice for starters is that it comes with the automatic egg-turner feature. It will turn eggs several times a day so that the developing embryo doesn’t stick to the shell and membrane. This feature can’t be turned off, but you can reposition the tray to keep eggs from turning upside down.
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3. Brinsea Products Mini II Advance Automatic 7 Egg Incubator – Best for Visibility
Hold up to:
- 7 chicken/duck eggs
- 12 quail/pheasant eggs
Duck eggs failing to hatch is a costly experience, and quickly diagnose the early symptoms can rescue the eggs and prevent future losses.
Besides choosing high-quality eggs, you should also frequently check the hatching process and adjust the humidity, temperature, and airflow inside depending on your egg type. But how do you do it if you can’t open the lid while it’s running?
This Brinsea incubator enables you to view the hatching process without opening the cover, thanks to its transparent ABS lid for great visibility. You can adjust the thermostat with the digital display on the cover.
There is a countdown timer to the hatching day with the auto-stop function. Unlike the Mini II Eco version, Brinsea Mini II Advanced includes the auto egg-turner to lessen your checking effort.
There are 2 disks in this product package – a disk of 7 slots for chicken eggs and duck eggs and a disk of 12 slots for quail and pheasant eggs. This mini incubator is an interesting hatching kit for classroom use or a compact machine for those who raise pet ducks like Pekin, Rouen, Call duck, etc.
Read More: Chicken Egg vs Quail Egg – Which is Better? Learn more about quail and chicken eggs and how they compare in this guide!
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4. KEBONNIXS Egg Incubator with Humidity Display – Great Incubator with Egg Candle
- Hold up to 12 duck eggs
- Egg candle is available
The Kebonnixs 12-egg mini incubator is among the best incubators for beginners to backyard poultry farming, for home, classroom, or lab use. You can hatch up to 12 standard eggs with this incubator, whether chicken, duck, quail or goose eggs.
This egg incubator provides an additional feature that doesn’t appear in most incubators on the market – the LED egg candler. This is a special device to check whether eggs are fertilized and monitor the egg’s embryonic development.
Moreover, the Kebonnixs incubator has an external water top-up, so you don’t need to open the lid to avoid losing humidity and temperature.
The 360-degree viewing window is clear and big, allowing you to watch the egg development and other things going on all sides of the machine.
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5. HovaBator Genesis 1588 Advanced Egg Incubator Combo Kit – Best for Compatibility
Hold up to:
- 30-40 duck eggs
- 42 chicken eggs
- 70 quail eggs
- 28 goose eggs
HovaBator Genesis 1588 is an advanced incubation kit for experienced farmers. This duck egg incubator can hold temperature and humidity steadier than the basic models, which is more cost-efficient and effective.
This machine can contain approximately 42 chicken eggs, 70 quail eggs, or 28 goose eggs with a universal egg tray for different egg sizes.
This egg incubator is made of Styrofoam, providing better insulation than PP or ABS plastics in conventional models. There is also an air fan to maintain consistent temperature and humidity inside, thus better at optimizing the hatch rate. You can also view how things happen inside, thanks to the large 12 x 12 -inch viewing window.
As a farmer, I think sometimes it’s hard to remember when to turn eggs manually. This machine can roll eggs 6 times per day automatically, which is similar to egg turning in nature. Duck eggs will be rotated every day for 25 days straight.
However, this advanced incubation kit doesn’t include an egg candler to observe the environment inside. It is also not recommended for beginners since it’s pretty expensive with advanced features, and you will have to do a lot of guesswork to get your desired hatch rate.
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6. Farm Innovators 4250 Digital Circulated Air Incubator – Best Commercial Duck Egg Incubator
- Hold up to 41 eggs (depends on egg size)
Artificial incubation plays a vital role in maximizing the reproductive potential of breeding populations. Farm Innovators 4250 promises to make the hatching season as simple as possible at a reasonable price. It can contain up to 41 duck eggs. You can also use this machine to hatch Muscovy duck eggs or even large duck and goose eggs.
What’s most noticeable in this commercial duck egg incubator is that it includes all the necessary features for hatching many eggs, from the countdown timer, digital thermostat display, auto egg-turner, and egg candler.
Farm Innovators 4250 also features 2 EZ fill water channels on the sides of the machine, allowing you to refill water without removing the lid. Each channel is set separately to maintain a constant humidity during the hatching process. To add water, you can use a filling device (not included in the product package).
This professional incubation machine is set to 100oF at factory settings. It will also warn you with light flashes when the temperature is a few degrees lower or higher than this temperature.
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Considerations When Choosing the Best Incubator for Duck Eggs
How do you incubate a duck egg you found?
It depends on the incubator you choose.
Incubator’s Size
The size of the incubator is the first thing that you have to take into account when you buy one. To best choose, consider how you’re going to use the incubator.
If you want one for your child to do science experiments, a mini incubator that can hatch around 12 eggs will do the job nicely. This type will also be a good fit for people who just got into incubating for the first time.
For those with greater needs (for example, if you’re a small farm owner), consider a medium-size unit that can handle 20-30 eggs at once.
Last but not least, if you run a commercial-size operation, there are many specialized incubators on the market that can support 90-120 eggs at once. These aren’t cheap, but the extra capacity will be well worth the money.
Read More: How Big is a Duck Egg Compared to a Chicken Egg? Is there that much of a difference? We take a close look at these two eggs in this guide!
Temperature/Thermostat
For eggs – no matter what kind – to hatch, the temperature must be kept at a constant 100°F.
If the temperature is too low, too high, or fluctuates too much, the eggs won’t develop properly. Small fluctuations are okay, but big fluctuations of several degrees will prevent the eggs from hatching. Even if they do hatch, there would be a good chance that the birds are improperly developed.
This is why keeping an eye on the heating efficiency and stability of an incubator is so important. It decides the health of your birds!
Read More: Chicken Egg vs Duck Egg Taste. We go over the differences between duck and chicken eggs including taste, size, and uses in this guide!
Humidity
Temperature aside, the humidity level inside of the incubator also plays an important role. The eggs of most birds are best incubated in an environment with a humidity level between 45 and 55. Some will require higher humidity around 60-65, so do careful research before you buy.
Most incubators these days will come with a humidifier to regulate the humidity level inside of the incubation chamber. There is going to be a tray that you can add water into. The incubator is going to use the water there to humidify the incubation chamber.
Cheaper models will need you to open up a lid to add water. Meanwhile, more expensive, better-built models don’t need you to open a lid and it’s for a good reason. When you open up the lid, a bit of heat is lost and the temperature fluctuates in the chamber. A lidless system is better for maintaining temperature throughout the incubation process.
Unfortunately, most incubators on the market don’t have very good humidity measuring hardware. As such, we highly recommend you buy your own hygrometer.
Read our related article on How to Make a Homemade Duck Egg Incubator. DIY incubators are an affordable option for hatching duck eggs. Learn how to make your own!
Rotation
If the embryo touches the membrane of the shell, it will die. To prevent this from happening, you must rotate the eggs at least once every two hours or so. It’s possible to do this by hand, but many incubators can take over the job for you.
The rotation method varies from one brand to another, but they all do the same job of giving the egg a few rotations every couple of hours.
The important thing to look for here is how well the incubator does the job. Some are more effective at rotating the eggs than others. Keep an eye out for the efficacy of the incubator’s rotation system as a result.
Read our related article on How to Hatch a Chick Without an Incubator. Hatching eggs without an incubator can be a bit of a challenge, but we make it EASY in this guide!
LED Candle
An LED candle can basically function as an X-Ray viewer. You can use it to look through the eggshell to see the embryo inside and inspect it to see if it’s growing and progressing at a proper pace.
If the egg isn’t developing well, you can discard it and switch it with another egg so that no slot in the incubator is wasted.
This isn’t an essential function. You can do the same thing with just about any type of flashlight. Nonetheless, it’s a small but useful function that can greatly improve convenience.
Read More: How to Incubate Turkey Eggs. Learn how to incubate turkey eggs with and without an incubator!
Circulation
Even eggs need proper circulation to live. A good incubator should have a fan inside the incubation chamber to shift air around. The point is to minimize the formation of hot or cold air pockets that can mess with the development pace of the eggs.
You’ll love: Top 10 Safest Alternatives To Heat Lamp For Chickens
FAQs
1. Can you use a chicken incubator for duck eggs?
Definitely. You can use a chicken incubator to hatch duck eggs as well as turkey eggs. The only difference between them is that chicken, duck, and turkey have different incubation periods. As a result, you shouldn’t mix-match eggs in a single batch. Put only one type of egg into the incubator at a time.
2. How long do you keep duck eggs in an incubator?
This will depend on the breed, however, most will hatch on day 25. Some breeds of duck, like Pekin, need around 28 days.
3. What happens if you don’t turn duck eggs?
The following information won’t just apply to duck eggs, but also all types of eggs.
If an egg is left sitting for too long without turning, the embryo (the yolk) will drift and eventually touch the outer shell of the egg. It will stick there.
When this happens, some embryos will die. However, if they continue to develop, the animal will develop entirely to one side of the egg. When they hatch, they will be deformed and weak.
This is the reason why you shouldn’t try to save an egg with a stuck yolk. It is a lot more humane to simply discard the egg.
Read More: How Many Eggs Do Ducks Lay Per Year? Learn how many eggs different duck species can lay each day and year in this guide!
4. What happens if humidity is too high in an incubator?
Humidity is how an egg receives water via moisture. Basically, it’s how you would “water” an egg.
As the egg begins to mature, it will gradually bleed out its moisture and lose weight. If the humidity is too high, the egg will dry out more slowly and not lose enough weight.
This results in a chick that’s too large and doesn’t have enough space to breathe inside of the egg. When it comes time to hatch, the overtly large chick may not have enough space to break out of the shell.
Additionally, when humidity is too high and the chick too large, there will be a very small air space inside of the egg. The chick wouldn’t be able to breathe normally which could cause it to potentially die. Even if it does, the chick may end up with respiratory problems in the future.
Read our related article where we review the Best Turkey Egg Incubator on the market today!
5. What should I see when candling eggs?
You won’t have a 100% hatch rate all the time. Instead of waiting until the end of the hatching period to see which egg made it through, you can know earlier by candling the egg.
When you put an egg up to a candle, if the egg doesn’t have any sign of development (no embryo, no blood vessels, no dark rings), it’s a “yolker”. Basically, these eggs weren’t fertilized and will never hatch.
A second case – “quitters” – can be discovered a bit further into the incubation period. Quitters are eggs that stop developing at one point during incubation. They won’t ever progress further.
You can discover this by checking the blood ring. It’s a very clear red circle inside the shell. Blood ring forms when an embryo dies and the blood vessels detach from the embryo, coming to a rest against the shell.
The third and also the last case is “winners”. These are the eggs that will make it to the end.
Check to see a completed network of blood vessels (they should appear white under the light). The dark mass at the center is the embryo. Late into the incubation period, you may even see the eyes of the embryo. Some wiggling motions could even be detected.
Yolkers and quitters are no good and should be discarded. Keep the winners.
Read More: What is a Boy Duck Called? We share the common name for male ducks, how to tell a female from a male duck, and fun duck facts!
My Top Pick
To get the best incubator for duck eggs, you need to know how many eggs you are about to incubate. If the number of eggs remains small, you should pick up a mini model at an affordable price and basic features, and vice versa.
Harris Farm Nurture Right 360 Incubator is the best choice for aviculturists of all levels and farm sizes. It includes all the necessary features for artificial hatching and can be used to incubate various egg types.
