China's Duck Industry

🦆 China's Duck Industry: The Automated Birth of Thousands of Ducklings

​China stands as the undisputed global leader in duck farming, accounting for over 80% of the world's total duck production. This massive scale, driven by centuries of tradition and modern technology, necessitates highly efficient processes—especially in the initial and most critical phase: the birth of thousands of ducklings. The journey from a fertile egg to a thriving duckling is a masterclass in agricultural engineering and precision.
​🥚 The Selection: Fertile Eggs
​The process begins with the parent breeder ducks, often high-yielding varieties like the White Pekin or local Chinese breeds, which lay hundreds of millions of fertile eggs annually.
​Collection and Sorting: Eggs are meticulously collected, often multiple times a day, to ensure freshness. They are then rigorously graded and candled (shone with a bright light) to check for fertility, cracks, and internal quality. Only the best-quality, viable eggs proceed to the hatchery.
​🌡️ The Incubation: A Controlled Environment
​In modern Chinese duck farms, the days of using broody hens are largely over. They have been replaced by immense, climate-controlled industrial incubators capable of handling millions of eggs simultaneously.
​Pre-Incubation: Eggs are often briefly stored in a cool room to manage the batch schedule before being transferred to the setters.
​The Setter Stage (Day 1 - 25): The fertile eggs are placed in the setters, which are large, automated machines that mimic the conditions under a mother duck. Temperature, humidity, and ventilation are precisely controlled.
​Temperature Control: The temperature is maintained near the ideal 37.5^\circ C (99.5^\circ F), with minor adjustments depending on the stage of development.
​Automated Turning: The eggs are automatically and regularly turned—up to 24 times a day—to prevent the embryo from sticking to the shell membrane and to ensure even heat distribution.
​The Hatcher Stage (Day 26 - 28): Around day 25, the eggs are transferred from the setters to the hatchers. These machines have slightly different settings, primarily lower humidity to help the ducklings dry off quickly after hatching, and trays that allow the ducklings to drop safely once they emerge.
​✨ The Hatch: A Burst of Life
​The final few days are when the miracle happens on a mass scale. The hatching process is one of controlled chaos, resulting in thousands of new lives in a matter of hours.
​Pipping and Zipping: The ducklings begin to crack the shell (pipping) and then cut a circle around it (zipping) using their egg tooth. The total incubation period for most domesticated duck eggs is around 28 days.
​Mass Hatching: Due to the precise control of the incubation environment and the uniformity of the egg batches, the hatching is often synchronized. Thousands of small, fluffy ducklings emerge almost simultaneously, cheeping loudly.
​Immediate Processing: Once hatched, the ducklings are quickly removed from the hatchers. They are then:
​Sexed: Separated into males (drakes) and females, often by examining their cloaca (vent).
​Vaccinated: Given essential vaccinations to ensure health in the crowded commercial environment.
​Counted and Packed: Counted by the thousands and carefully packed into ventilated boxes for transport to the brooding or rearing farms.
​📈 A Cornerstone of Chinese Agriculture
​This industrial-scale hatching process is key to supporting China's enormous demand for duck meat (like the famous Peking Duck) and duck eggs. It represents the perfect synergy of ancient agricultural expertise—ducks have been domesticated in China since 2000 BC—and cutting-edge automation, allowing Chinese duck farms to achieve truly astronomical production number