Broody Muscovy Questions

[lauralou]

I have a muscovy hen that is a first time mother. This morning when I peeked in on her, I noticed an egg just laying out in the nest. I thought it must have been bad, so I reached in, picked it up and sniffed it. No smell. But it was stone cold.

This particular hen isn't scary at all, so I put it back in the nest, kinda under her wing. Then I felt around and found several more that weren't under her, also cold. I slipped them under her wing as well.

But now I'm kinda worried. Is she doing a bad job of covering them, or is this normal? My other muscovy momma seemed to keep all of hers covered. But on the other hand, she's a far more aggressive broody, so I certainly never fumbled around in her nest.

Today is Day 19. If I were to try and candle these eggs, assuming I could see anything through the thick shell, what could I expect to see in the way of normal development?

Anybody who's an old hand at raising muscovies, please give me your thoughts on what I should do.

Thanks in advance!

 

[lauralou]

I wanted to add that the nest she is in is quite large. Is it possible that I made it too large? Is she losing her eggs in there? I'm guessing here, but it's about 2 feet by 2 and a half feet.

Just a thought, because my other broody was in a smaller nest.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

That could be it on the nest size, our duck/ chicken nests are about 12 x 12 or maybe just a little bigger.

Steve in NC

 

[lauralou]

Thanks Steve! I thought I was doing a good thing by making them bigger. Live and learn...

Anybody know about the candling question? I'm not an expert candler at all. I've candled chicken eggs that were under broody hens before, but only very early in the process to see if they were veining or not.

What should I see on a muscovy egg at Day 19?

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

At 19 days they are a little over 1/2 way so you should see definate development. That's kind of vague I know but, don't often candle eggs. And when I do I just look for "clears"

Steve

 

[lauralou]

Thanks again, Steve. I do know what you mean, because now that I think about it, I have candled an egg that was a little more developed. So the half full thing does make sense.

I'll give it a try. And try also to come up with a more laid-back attitude. She will hatch out what she manages to hatch out, and I guess there's not much I can do about it one way or the other.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

That's the best thing about muscovies - I swear a hen can sit on 20 eggs, end up with about 22 ducklings when they hatch, and by the time it's over there are about 30 of them. LOL

Steve

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
The muscovy hens we had were well known for stealing eggs to hatch and it wasn't that uncommon to see a string of ducklings with chicks mixed in.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

Yes they will do that. We had a chicken hen and muscovy hen sharing a nest, when the ducklings hatched out they both raised them. It the funniest thing I have ever seen when that hen was trying to teach the duckling to scratch. She would do her "hey I found something good call" and they would all come running. One got to where it would stay with her, it tried to scratch but couldn't so it would stand there and stomp it's feet. It was just tooooo funny.

Steve