The incubator that this post refers to is Brinsea Octagon 20.

Phrases such as “duckling fuzz” and “incubator fluff” are something I had never heard of, or consciously read about before my first attempt at incubating the eggs of our ducks. And I could not have imagined what the debris looks like in the incubator, anyway. Yes, I use the same machine for incubation and hatching, although this is not recommended. Well, I could afford one machine at a time, anyway.

After we had transferred all our first ducklings out of the incubator, most of its walls, the fan and some of the electrical parts were covered with crystal-like stuff:

I especially admired the hairy fan:

The debris had also piled around a small hole below (or above, depending on the angle of view) one of the PCB-s of the incubator:

All the manuals and books I have read stress the importance of cleaning and disinfecting the incubator after each hatch, and well, I was planning to do it. However, it was kind of hard to get near the circuit board and the internal wiring, and I’m not sure if the machine is actually clean enough now. I used the vacuum cleaner and a moist towel, trying to keep the electronics completely dry. Well, the fan and its friends look like this now: