I have only had to help once and this egg was under a duck... an older duck who didn't properly care for herself by bathing and keeping the humidity where it should have been, I worked on that egg from Friday morn till Monday morn when she was able to get the rest of the way out by herself , all the while mama duck was just sitting there letting me help. Thanks goodness it was only one egg I was such a nervous wreck. She is a beautiful girl and turned 1 yr this past June. Hopefully yours will all hatch with out any intervention. WE can hope anyway.I have TWO BYC icons on my desktop, one is Pete's guide and the other is Incubating and Hatching Muscovy Eggs by yinepu. I have read both several times and I have returned to both of them here lately since I also have Muscovy AND Embden eggs in the incubator. I am not sure about putting a hole in the Muscovy egg air sac, but if it works for the goose it may also work for the Muscovy. My comment above is only a thought, but it does sound very logical to me. Many have said "let nature take its course" or something to that effect about helping in the hatching process, but I also believe that we are not incubating and hatching as a mother hen or nature, but we are doing it artificially and are prone to error so why not intervene if necessary? I've had many a chick that I helped hatch grow up and be as healthy and productive as ones I didn't help.
I also want to make sure nobody follows my train of thought because it is not advice, I barely know what I'm doing myself when it comes to duck & goose eggs....
As you know, I am keeping a diary of sorts on my Muscovy eggs and in less than two weeks (hopefully), we will see how they went. I could still lose all of them yet. The trickiest part is the hatching. I haven't counted my chickens, er ducklings just yet....
Diane88, any good news? You passing out cigars?
