After my Incubator was stable and ready to go, I ordered eggs. I got a variety pack with 4 types. The Khaki Campbell Duck, a extremely efficient egg laying breed, with as many as 320 eggs a year, the Indian Runner Duck, a very unusual duck that can not fly but runs or walks (hence the name), the Peking Duck, which has been bred in China for centuries specifically to eat, and is the main component in a National Dish of China, and the Rouen Duck, a very large duck that originated in France.
The order said it would send eighteen eggs plus what else they could send. This, apparently, is the way they usually place orders. They send a given number, but because eggs are very perishable, any unsold eggs have to be sent somewhere, so they just send them to people who have placed other orders. I had wondered how they would ship eggs. The company they came from was in Florida, so would they make it all the way? The box they came in was heavily lined in foam, bubble wrap, and packaging paper. Each individual egg was wrapped in more bubble wrap. I received twenty-two eggs total. I believe four to be Indian Runner Ducks, four to be Pekin, nine to be Khaki Campbell, and five to be Rouen.
One egg, one of my Khaki Campbells, came with a small crack in the shell. I put it in anyway, because when the egg was first inventoried by the company, it was marked with pen. I am interested to see how it turns out. (Even if it dies, I won’t be too frustrated, Remember, this is an extra ‘bonus’ egg they sent.) I put the eggs in the Incubator, separated based upon what breed of duck egg they are. A few hours after this, I noticed the IncuTherm™ thermometer read a temperature that was much too high. It was fluxuating between 102 and 103 degrees. I quickly turned it down, and after a few adjustments, everything seems to be going well, with a pretty stable temperature. The humidity also dropped, but only by a few points.