Frustrated With Muscovy Eggs: What Am I Doing Wrong?

[jofanx]

I'm currently getting really frustrated with my muscovy eggs. I have a small backyard flock of them but every clutch (4 so far) I've tried to artificially incubated has only had one or two ducklings (out of 4 - 5 eggs) survive the hatch. The rest, if they aren't duds, will pip and then quit. When I open them up, the blood vessels have all receded but they won't have absorbed the yolk. I swear I must be doing something wrong at this point.

I do have my hens sitting on nests of their own this year so getting new ducklings is not an issue, but I would like to be able to hatch them artificially too. I've done chickens and quail with no problem. Set and forget them and some time later I take out the autoturner and bam, 90% - 100% hatch rate.

I'm using a Janoel 12. Set to 37.6 C (99.7 F). Dry incubation because it gets humid here in the NE during spring. My extra thermometer/hydrometer reads anywhere between 30% - 60% humidity on any given day although today it's at 75% due to the last two days of (and continuing) rain. Auto turner taken out on Day 27 and begin lockdown. I start getting pips day 29 - 31. Maybe one or two will zip and hatch. The rest will have just quit. Some before internally pipping, some after. Not malpositioned (except the first clutch last year when I didn't realize they would internally pip so soon and didn't take out the auto turner in time), sticky, or shrink wrapped either. The air cells look good.

So unbelievably frustrated. Any idea what might be going on?

My hens are all under 2 years old except for a single 5 year old hen. They free range on an acre and get chicken layer feed as well.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Your muscovy hens will wet themselves before returning to the nest, so duck eggs need more moisture than other species I believe during incubation, but I'm not positive. I personally have never tried incubating them due to that issue. Another thought is I've seen the muscovy hens standing when eggs hatch perhaps to allow more air flow. Just a few thought, I have read muscovy are hard to artificially incubate. I'm trying to see if a chicken can hatch them currently.

Another thought is your muscovy may do better on a different feed type than layer, but it probably doesn't cause a problem. An All Flock ration is a better choice I think because of the higher protein. Provide a separate bowl of oyster shells for the calcium needs.

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

Good info here: http://animalsciencey.ucdavis.edu/avian/muscovy1001.htm
And might try Here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/incubating-and-hatching-muscovy-eggs.63532/

 

[jofanx]

Your muscovy hens will wet themselves before returning to the nest, so duck eggs need more moisture than other species I believe during incubation, but I'm not positive. I personally have never tried incubating them due to that issue. Another thought is I've seen the muscovy hens standing when eggs hatch perhaps to allow more air flow. Just a few thought, I have read muscovy are hard to artificially incubate. I'm trying to see if a chicken can hatch them currently.

Another thought is your muscovy may do better on a different feed type than layer, but it probably doesn't cause a problem. An All Flock ration is a better choice I think because of the higher protein. Provide a separate bowl of oyster shells for the calcium needs.

I was thinking it might be the feed too so I'm going to change it to gamebird with oyster shell on the side. My other thought was the oxygen level that what if it isn't adequate at hatch for them and that's the actual problem but I have no way of measuring that. It's really interesting that you should mention muscovy hens standing during hatch. I'm going to see if mine does it too. Not sure what that would translate to for an incubator though--lower temp? Opening the incubator periodically at hatch? That would mess with the humidity at hatch which... would do more harm than good?

 

[jofanx]

Good info here: http://animalsciencey.ucdavis.edu/avian/muscovy1001.htm
And might try Here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/incubating-and-hatching-muscovy-eggs.63532/

This was my go to bible for them but even following it to a T hasn't worked well for me...

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

I only have muscovy babies (almost 9 weeks) - and admittedly no experience in hatching. Just remembered running across those articles before. Hope you find something that works. None of your hens will go broody? Or are you just incubating as a hobby?

 

[jofanx]

I only have muscovy babies (almost 9 weeks) - and admittedly no experience in hatching. Just remembered running across those articles before. Hope you find something that works. None of your hens will go broody? Or are you just incubating as a hobby?

I'm trying to get the incubating process down just in case I get abandoned nests in the future. I actually have two broody hens sitting on nests right now so getting ducklings isn't too difficult as they do sit. I'm hoping I'll be able to find something that can help...

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

There is another muscovy hatch thread going currently. They are also having issues, maybe the two of you can compare notes?

 

[jofanx]

There is another muscovy hatch thread going currently. They are also having issues, maybe the two of you can compare notes?

Is there a link?

Even more frustrating is, I have multiple batches incubating and the second clutch have all externally pipped and looks like they’ll all make it (except for one that quit developing midway.) Exact same conditions. What the heck.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I was thinking it might be the feed too so I'm going to change it to gamebird with oyster shell on the side. My other thought was the oxygen level that what if it isn't adequate at hatch for them and that's the actual problem but I have no way of measuring that. It's really interesting that you should mention muscovy hens standing during hatch. I'm going to see if mine does it too. Not sure what that would translate to for an incubator though--lower temp? Opening the incubator periodically at hatch? That would mess with the humidity at hatch which... would do more harm than good?

Unfortunately I have no clue. It might pay to look into incubating geese eggs for tips as muscovy are more similar to geese in other ways so maybe in the egg incubating too.