Incubation progress of Muscovy eggs

[charlindabob]

If you have fully formed chicks (ducklings) and they die in the shell, it would be reasonable to pin the problem on humidity. I would suggest that you purchase a small food scale that weighs in grams and weigh your eggs and mark them with pencil when you first put them in the incubator. The chick must lose weight while being incubated or else the chick cannot rotate inside the shell. Humidity controls the growth within the shell. Too much humidity and the chick swells up in the shell making it hard to pip and impossible to rotate. You should weigh the eggs weekly and judge the humidity requirements by weight. If you are experienced, you may be able to judge by the air sac development, but a scale has no guess work and they cost under $20 at Walmart I believe.

Now there are other aspects that are just as important as humidity, but humidity is often over looked or is guess work at best. You know humidity is important when you have full term deaths in the shell.

Bob

 

[subhanalah]

Thank you Bob. That post was very helpful. I didn't quite understand before but the way you've just phrased it made it much clearer for me. I only "knew" before, but now I understand.

 

[casportpony]

Problem for me is finding the sweet spot. I tried the weighing method using a gram scale, tracked their weight, was right on target and still lost 50% of my peachicks. Chicken chicks, no problem, but muscovies and peafowl are very difficult for a novice like me.

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

I have 12 scovy eggs in the bator now, so we'll see if I have better luck this time. These were started by a hen and she left her nest. I really should have weighed these, but I kept putting it off, lol, now it's too late.

Comments and/or suggestions for Muscovy eggs in an RCOM bator are more than welcome!



-Kathy

 

[Miss Lydia]

Here is the whole group:

Got back just in time to see the cuddlies.

 

[AnimalQuackers]

Everyone makes mistakes. Warning, I'm about to talk about God, so if any of you don't like that then just stop reading now.

The only thing that is written for us is the date of our death. There is nothing anyone can do to change that. This includes when animals die. These sweet babies are back with their creator and something good comes of tragedy - ALWAYS! Even if we had given number 11 a safe hole, he still would not have made it. If anything, this way is much easier ON US since it was over before we had a chance to fret.
Please don't beat yourself up over this. Your intentions were good, you did not do anything with malice or ill intent, so no blame can be placed. You can feel remorse, if you didn't perhaps that would indicate a deeper problem. Let us not let this get us down, the rest of these delicate and fragile lives rests with us and if we get stuck on one mistake then we will only continue to make more mistakes. (Just like musicians when playing a piece of music or athletes when playing their sport.) Hope I've made some sense. It's hard to type out stuff on a touch screen keyboard. I miss my buttons.

Thank you Subhanalah. Your words are very, very kind.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I was thinking that baby looked wet but wasn't sure if it was the lighting. AQ I'm thinking when all said and done your going to have some ducks who will do your hatching after this. Did I miss it are all the last ones dead? the ones that were with 12? Sorry if I did I was out putting everyone to bed.

 

[AnimalQuackers]

You didn't cause these deaths? You simply thought you did right, this is all a learning Experience. And I bet right now, You are sooooo EXPERIENCE that your next batch is going to be a BREEZE. ha ha just like your new ducky/ LOL

Thank you, Lori. Certainly, if it weren't for you and the other kind people who have helped over the past serveral days, NONE of these sweet little babies would be alive today!

 

[subhanalah]

I just don't want you to beat yourself up. Some things we can control, but other things are completely out of our hands. I hope you can have some peace with everything that's happened. I am sure this has affected you and the way you view the world and you will be so much better for it. *hugs*

 

[AnimalQuackers]

If you have fully formed chicks (ducklings) and they die in the shell, it would be reasonable to pin the problem on humidity. I would suggest that you purchase a small food scale that weighs in grams and weigh your eggs and mark them with pencil when you first put them in the incubator. The chick must lose weight while being incubated or else the chick cannot rotate inside the shell. Humidity controls the growth within the shell. Too much humidity and the chick swells up in the shell making it hard to pip and impossible to rotate. You should weigh the eggs weekly and judge the humidity requirements by weight. If you are experienced, you may be able to judge by the air sac development, but a scale has no guess work and they cost under $20 at Walmart I believe.

Now there are other aspects that are just as important as humidity, but humidity is often over looked or is guess work at best. You know humidity is important when you have full term deaths in the shell.

Bob

Thank you, Bob. I knew this - I believe I read it early on in this thread, from you! Aren't the eggs supposed to lose 2% of their weight every two weeks? I know I read that somewhere, and I knew it! In fact, when I first collected the eggs and started putting them in the bator, I WAS weighing them (we have a gram scale). I did it for a while, then stopped. Clearly, it is important enough that I should have NEVER stopped!

Am I right that the goal is for the eggs to lose 2% of their weight every 2 weeks?

Michelle