Is there a right method/technique to incubate and hatch duck eggs?.?

Question

I tried in January but the project bombed... I kept the temperature at 37C and turned the eggs at least 4 times a day (except at night). I a bowl of water in the incubator to add moisture but non of the eggs hatched. (Note: around day 17 a cruel kid turned the incubator up to 45C)

Answer 1

I have just a few pointers to add to Farm Gal's answer.

Incubate all waterfowl on their sides.  If you use an egg turner (which it sounds like you do not), find egg cups that are big enough to allow the eggs to sit on their sides.

After the first 7 - 10 days take the eggs out of the incubator for 1/2 an hour per day to allow the embryo to rest and to cool.  In nature, the mother duck leaves the nest at least one time per day to eat, and unlike chickens will often be absent for an extended period of time.  Allowing the embryo to cool mimics this naturally occuring cooling period in nature.

Do not spray the eggs with water and do not keep the humidity too high.  Most of the water in an egg needs to be lost by the end of the incubation period to make room for the growing duck.  The humidity needs to be raised during the last 48 hours before hatching so the membranes do not dry out and cause the duck to stick to the membranes.  

Get a good LED flashlight, if you can, and then take the lens cover off.  Take the eggs during their cool off period and go in a dark room.  Place the flashlight on the big end of the egg and you can look at the developing duck inside.  At first you will see veins, and slowly you will see the duck develop until it is so big you can't see anything because the egg will be full except in the air cell.  To see veins, you will have to wait until at least day 10.  Sometimes it takes a little longer to see them in duck eggs.  

Keep trying as hatching can be fun and addicting!  It is a skill, though and there is a learning curve.  It is a fascinating and rewarding hobby.  Good luck.

Answer 2

have no clue

Answer 3

Hatching duck eggs is fairly easy and very rewarding if you have a proper incubator and keep a good eye on them. There is very little difference in hatching duck and chicken eggs. In your first try the cruel kid did you in. Any sharp rise in temperature all the way to the day of hatching will kill your hatch.

Incubation Period: 28 days

Days 1 through 25: Temperature 99..5 degrees Fahrenheit

(I am giving you Fahrenheit because it is what I am familiar with. You can convert as you see fit.) Humidity: 86% Turns per day 3-7.

Days 26 through 28:

Temperature: 98.5 F, Humidity: 94%,  Turns Per Day  : none, stop turning.

In general, unless you have a very good incubator, you are not going to maintain these exact temperatures all of the time, just keep a close watch on the temperature and adjust when necessary. watch especially in the last 5 or 6 days before hatching because the ducklings will be adding to the heat with their own body heat. This will cause a quick rise in temperature and if you don't have an incubator that self adjusts, you have to be ready and adjust your temperature downward. This is probably the single most thing that will cause failure of the hatch. Sometimes you might get one or two percent hatch of very weak ducklings.

Humidity is very important but probably the only thing you can do is make sure you have a shallow pan with water in it at all of the time. You need more surface area of water exposed than a glass or small bowl can provide.

Finally, if you fail, don't give up, try again. The rewards are worth it. There are some things that you can't do any thing about, like your small child. I know that you would like to have his hands cut off, but he probably did what he did out of ignorance, not cruelty. Educate the children that such actions will be killing the ducklings, not too many would want to do that.