Our Duck Egg Hatching Process

Hatching Eggs And Incubating Process

At Shirlock Acres, we incubate and hatch our own Muscovy duck eggs. Our Muscovy ducklings are fast-growing, growing to 12 pounds in 12 weeks. The male Muscovy duck, also known as a Muscovy drake, grows up to 15 pounds, nearly twice the size of a female Muscovy duck. Our Muscovy ducklings will start laying eggs when they’re about six months (25 weeks) old. They will continue to lay their eggs for three years or even longer if they’re well cared for and fed a rich-protein diet. When Muscovies are laying their eggs, it’s best to keep your distance from them because they become very protective.

About Our Farm

Egg Collection

We start by collecting eggs from our special set-up nesting boxes. Eggs are collected once a day, every day of the week. Collected Muscovy duck eggs are placed directly in incubator trays. Once an egg is laid, it must get into the incubator as soon as possible to give it the best chance of hatching. Since we only place our eggs in the incubator once a week, we keep them in a cooler at around 60 degrees directly after being collected to sustain their egg fertility.

SHOP MUSCOVY EGGS

Incubation And Candling

After being collected and cooled for a few days, we then place the eggs in the incubator. The eggs will stay in the incubator for 5 weeks.

When we first collect the eggs and place them in the incubator, not all of them are fertile, and we don’t know which ones are which. But after 20 days in the incubator, if there is an embryo growing inside, you can see it by shining a bright light directly on the egg. This process is called candling.

A non-fertile egg will not have an embryo inside. After we finish the candling process, we return the eggs back into the incubator for another 11.5 days. On day 31.5, we transfer them from incubator trays to hatching trays and then place them in the hatcher to wait for the hatching eggs. The hatching trays are designed to let the eggs/ducklings move around freely after being hatched. Once they are in the hatcher for 4.5 days, then they are fully hatched and ready to be sorted, counted, and delivered.

SHOP MUSCOVY EGGS

Hatching Eggs Day

Our Hatching Days are every Tuesday and Wednesday. We transfer the ducklings from the hatching trays to the cardboard shipping boxes, and in each shipping box, we place a cup of something called GroGel. GroGel is a gel product that provides ducklings hydration and nutrients, giving them a much higher survival rate during the shipment period.

On Tuesdays, we ship out all online mail orders, and on Wednesdays, we ship out all local orders.

We remove the ducklings from the hatcher during local deliveries and place them in washable delivery trays to deliver to local customers. Most of our local customers are within 100 miles of our hatchery, but we can sometimes deliver further than this.

Browse our selection of ducks

WHAT ARE FOLKS SAYING?

Our farm is dedicated to hatching and raising ducks for you either for meat purposes or as pets. Check out our reviews from our satisfied customers. Get your ducks or eggs and become part of the Shirlock family!

I ordered a dozen muscovy duck eggs. They arrived quickly and were very well packaged. This was my first time incubating eggs and I used a very cheap incubator manufactured in china so I wasn’t expecting great results. 11 of the 12 hatched and are healthy happy ducks now. As a comparison, I ordered 8 eggs from another company at the same time and incubated the Freedom Ranger and the others altogether. Only 5 of 8 hatched from the other company. Freedom Ranger was better packaged, arrived faster, and had a much higher hatch rate.
CJ J.
Customer

I’m SO excited over these beauties.
Everything I’ve researched concerning these meat birds is ALL A+. I haven’t heard a negative word yet and can’t wait until fall when processing starts.
I’ll be getting back to the reviews after I roast my first bird.👍
The customer service is wonderful and very informative. Extremely helpful & kind.
Gene K.
Customer

ORDERING DOMESTIC MUSCOVY DUCKS

Order your ducks online, and we will ship them to you. Our online orders and shipments require a minimum of 15 Muscovy ducks. For orders less than 6 ducks, please visit our farm in Narvan, PA, to pick up your product. We provide shipping treatments on the wings and bills to prevent them from flying and biting.

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