My 16 day old cracked Muscovy egg passed away after living for 5 days. (Warning Sensitive Content)

[AmyA248]

Sorry for your loss
I to had this happen and mine lasted a little longer but still passed
I also used wax and opened my egg to see what happened

My baby had feathers that was pure white was small as it wasn’t hatch time yet but was developed perfectly
It was a shock to me as I had never got a white baby before
With pekin mom and khaki dad I was use to brown and black
But that meant my other drake must have got her who carried a white gene as it’s the only way
Not sure yet how the baby had pure white as they usually are born yellow
Maybe they change yellow before hatch ?
I was also heart broken
I can’t remember but I think day 20 give or take a few

Oh my goodness! Absolutely heartbreaking! What a beautiful baby!
I’m so sensitive with animals it just breaks my heart. I hope they don’t suffer.
I just can’t get this right and it’s really affecting me, as I spend hours a day fussing with the incubator and simply can’t get it to hold. I don’t know what to do.
I know I should cancel and remove the dead ones, but I’m afraid because I get so deeply saddened.
What am I doing wrong?

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

Oh my goodness! Absolutely heartbreaking! What a beautiful baby!
I’m so sensitive with animals it just breaks my heart. I hope they don’t suffer.
I just can’t get this right and it’s really affecting me, as I spend hours a day fussing with the incubator and simply can’t get it to hold. I don’t know what to do.
I know I should cancel and remove the dead ones, but I’m afraid because I get so deeply saddened.
What am I doing wrong?

It may just be the bator and not you
Or it could be the eggs themselves
I have had really high hatch rates and have helped others to have them as well
one thing is are you putting the newly hatched eggs in the bator when they are cold from outside ?
You can gather 10-14 days of eggs keeping them on the counter then put them all in at one time
Never put a cold egg in it needs to hit room temp first
Mom is young and you can’t force broody she may not be ready to do this yet
@Miss Lydia has Muscovy ducks so she maybe able to help with what signs and age mom may go broody
As for now you incubating your temps and humidity gages maybe off
Calibrate both then you will get more accurate readings
I run my temps at 37.5-37.8
My humidity at 40-45 till lockdown then 65 -70
I candle daily , I mist my eggs from day 10 to lockdown but this could be different for Muscovy eggs as they are not big water ducks
I weigh and mark my air cells once a week that way of my air cells are looking to big or to small and weight loss isn’t right I can adjust by upping or lowering my humidity
I never use the turners as my personal opinion is that’s not a Natural way for an egg to sit
Although many have success with them I just don’t care for them
I hand turn mine 3-5 times a day minimum
The staggered hatch will be really hard unless you have a second bator to move the lockdown ones to
I had 2 bators when I did staggered but would much rather gather eggs and start at the same time as the grow fast the first week and newborns can get trampled also switching feed from starter to grower was really hard
Just a few thoughts

 

[Miss Lydia]

All I can add except to say very sorry for your losses. I'd take up eggs and use them for eating or baking until warm weather arrives then start leaving the eggs in a nest she makes inside her house. If you have to take the nest box down and place it on the floor. My Muscovy will brood inside their coop but they like their privacy so I give them a spot away from the rest of the birds. You can place a dog crate or something similar and see if she'll use it for nesting. She'll eventually go broody [never seen a Muscovy yet that didn't] And you and your dd will enjoy so much watching mama teaching her ducklings about life. It won't be as hands on as brooding them yourselves but it is enjoyable.

 

[Jada22]

Don’t worry about all this fluctuation in your incubator humidity. These temporary highs and lows don’t make a huge difference. My first time incubating humidity was a disaster as I could not get the humidity to where I wanted it. Days of it going extremely high and then being completely empty.
Anyway humidity during incubation is low so that over time the egg can lose liquid and the air cell will get bigger- so that at hatch the chick will have enough air in the air cell. We then have higher humidity at lockdown so that the chicks don’t get stuck/shrink wrapped while hatching.
Your eggs may not all be dead it may have just been these 2.
I would advise not to add anymore eggs for now though. You can collect eggs store them at room temperature and turn them so one side of the egg tray is raised and then the other. They are good for a week or 2 then after that the fertility starts declining but people have had success with much older eggs and it doesn’t hurt to try- if the old eggs won’t work they’ll just never start.

If you do end up losing everything then disinfect your incubator before putting more eggs in and play with the temps and humidity before trying again.
Sometimes we do just get a couple of bad eggs. So don’t stress too much.
I do know how heartbreaking it is to lose them but unfortunately it happens.
Everything crossed you’ll get a few healthy chicks this hatch

 

[AmyA248]

It may just be the bator and not you
Or it could be the eggs themselves
I have had really high hatch rates and have helped others to have them as well
one thing is are you putting the newly hatched eggs in the bator when they are cold from outside ?
You can gather 10-14 days of eggs keeping them on the counter then put them all in at one time
Never put a cold egg in it needs to hit room temp first
Mom is young and you can’t force broody she may not be ready to do this yet
@Miss Lydia has Muscovy ducks so she maybe able to help with what signs and age mom may go broody
As for now you incubating your temps and humidity gages maybe off
Calibrate both then you will get more accurate readings
I run my temps at 37.5-37.8
My humidity at 40-45 till lockdown then 65 -70
I candle daily , I mist my eggs from day 10 to lockdown but this could be different for Muscovy eggs as they are not big water ducks
I weigh and mark my air cells once a week that way of my air cells are looking to big or to small and weight loss isn’t right I can adjust by upping or lowering my humidity
I never use the turners as my personal opinion is that’s not a Natural way for an egg to sit
Although many have success with them I just don’t care for them
I hand turn mine 3-5 times a day minimum
The staggered hatch will be really hard unless you have a second bator to move the lockdown ones to
I had 2 bators when I did staggered but would much rather gather eggs and start at the same time as the grow fast the first week and newborns can get trampled also switching feed from starter to grower was really hard
Just a few thoughts

Hi!

Thank you SO MUCH for your thoughtful reply!
I wish I didn’t have to stagger but she’s been laying since January 23rd! There’s no way the first eggs would have survived that long. And she laid ANOTHER this morning!
I don’t know if this is normal but it certainly seems odd to me.
I do believe she’s too young, she’s 9 months, and this is her very first clutch.
Sadly losing all our eggs is really affecting my little girl. Last year when I had to rescue 5 abandoned Wood duck eggs we had no problems at all. My daughter counted down the days until hatch day and watched all of them hatch happily. They all imprinted with her and followed her around everywhere! She adored her “babies”!!
Sadly, due to the fact our Muscovy eggs keep dying she takes it very hard.
We got our male and female at just a few days old and hand raised them until they were ready to go outside.
Now we were so excited that they were going to have ducklings of their own, but I just can’t keep them alive..

Blessings,
Amy

 

[AmyA248]

Can you post a picture of your incubator?

Certainly!

 

[casportpony]

Is it in your budget to purchase another incubator?