As Herringbone said, raising chicks inside is messy. While your winters are short, I think I would wait a little while, so that the chicks can be raised in an unheated shed rather than the garage once they are beyond the initial, more delicate stage, and can handle temperature swings. Do you also have an brooder set up, or can you make one? If you do a search for incubators, hatching eggs and or brooders/raising chicks, etc. on the forum, you should get lots of info - it comes up regularly in the spring. Also, not from experience, but from reading, homemade incubators are difficult to keep evenly warm and humid, so your rate of unhatched eggs will be higher than with a purpose built commercial incubator. I don't know how old your kids are, nor their temperaments, but can they simply accept that some of the eggs won't hatch, or is that going to cause problems? Can you start now and put up flyers or ask at the local feed store(s) if anyone has one they can lend you, maybe for a percentage of chicks, if it is a big one?

It depends upon the breed of your ducks. Some ducks, like some chickens are "non-setters". These breeds are preferred by commercial egg producers for edible eggs, and when they are used for fertilized eggs they usually always require the use of an incubator or "surrogate" mother to get them hatched.

I totally understand how you feel. Up until last Friday, I could not have hurt a HOSP. However today I would rather wring their neck as look at them. Three weeks ago we had a hatch of 5 baby bluebirds. We watched them everyday growing like litttle weeds into fully feathered beauties. My husband get telling me the HOSPs would end up killing our babies. He wanted to get a trap, but I stubborningly refused.. A decision I would live to regret. That day was a week ago today when we saw a male HOSP on their house. We found bluebird feathers on the ground. When we opened the box the babies were baldheaded and bleeding. their eyes and beaks had been pecked as well as there wings . My husband handed me the first baby who died in my hand. As I stood there watching my husband pulled 2 more out that were dead. As we walked away the HOSP headed for the house again to finish them off. I took the nest out, asked my husband to get me a spare house bringing it in our house to keep that monster away. I held those little guys and cried my heart out. They died sometime after 1 am when I fell asleep. We ordered a Sparrow trap that night. In 2 days we have caught over a dozen sparrows. I have been responsible for doing away with over half of them and I am not done yet. I guess it takes seeing what I saw to get to where I am.

That's why I suggested the suet. It may not be a perfect solution, but it should get them through the cold spell. If you choose to try mealworms, you could place them out in an open dish. Or tie an empty cat food can sized container to a nearby branch? Other birds will eat them as well, so only as an emergency to keep the babies fed until the weather warms up enough for the parents to find insects. Of course, if it rains, they drown. My local feed store sells the dried mealworms. Blues won't usually take those, but in a situation where their young are starving I think they will.