Duck Breed Focus - Muscovy

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote:
My main duck hen is already setting a nest in a dead tree. The boys get pretty bad come spring. If they show any aggression or interest in chickens, they go. I have had chicken hens and roosters killed by ducks, trying to mate them. Its best to limit drakes in a small farm setting. They are dominant and aggressive towards other drakes. Or confine them, so they won't have access to the whole mixed flock.
Drakes have very long, sharp claws. Fight hard, flog, so be prepared if you plan to keep a large flock of them. I have had my arms and legs scratched up pretty bad stopping fights.

 

[JanetMarie]

My main duck hen is already setting a nest in a dead tree. The boys get pretty bad come spring. If they show any aggression or interest in chickens, they go. I have had chicken hens and roosters killed by ducks, trying to mate them. Its best to limit drakes in a small farm setting. They are dominant and aggressive towards other drakes. Or confine them, so they won't have access to the whole mixed flock.
Drakes have very long, sharp claws. Fight hard, flog, so be prepared if you plan to keep a large flock of them. I have had my arms and legs scratched up pretty bad stopping fights.

Sadly, we had to get rid of the bigger male two days ago. It was so much more emotional than butchering roosters. Now we have one male and two females, and things are better for the females. The remaining male does not show aggression toward any chickens, but is intimidated by them, and seems to have a very good temperment with being gentlemanly.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote: I can't do "it" unless I have no other choice. Its hard and painful to let them go.I hand raise everything here, and when it comes to a decision its hard. You made a good choice to keep harmony in your mixed flock.
We do raise animals for food here. But its really hard deciding fate at times, especially when you had hoped to keep a specific bird.

 

[hennible]

Well I kinda refuse to scan through every post on backyard chickens searching for Muscovy hatching tips so I'm going to ask, and I'm sorry if it's been asked before...
I've had to finish hatches in my incubator when new mamas started tossing out eggs as they pipped and did other odd things, but I've never done a start to finish Muscovy incubation. What are your Muskovy incubation tips (they've been in the bator about three hours lol)?
Side note: I wouldn't usually bother trying to hatch Muscovy, the mamas are so good at it. But I lost all but one of my girls over the winter and it is too cold for her to be brooding, I'm still seeing overnight temperatures as low as -20°C... I couldn't bring myself to eat the eggs so incubator was the logical place to put them

 

[Miss Lydia]

Well I kinda refuse to scan through every post on backyard chickens searching for Muscovy hatching tips so I'm going to ask, and I'm sorry if it's been asked before...
I've had to finish hatches in my incubator when new mamas started tossing out eggs as they pipped and did other odd things, but I've never done a start to finish Muscovy incubation. What are your Muskovy incubation tips (they've been in the bator about three hours lol)?
Side note: I wouldn't usually bother trying to hatch Muscovy, the mamas are so good at it. But I lost all but one of my girls over the winter and it is too cold for her to be brooding, I'm still seeing overnight temperatures as low as -20°C... I couldn't bring myself to eat the eggs so incubator was the logical place to put them

I am sorry for your losses @hennible did they die from the cold?

Any way only tips I can give is this one https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/incubating-and-hatching-muscovy-eggs

I let my girls hatch if we want to add more ducks.

 

[hennible]

I lost 3 to a fox, one to exposure and one vanished... my poor girls. Not sure what happen with the one that passed from exposure she just stayed in the pen and died. I assume the one that vanished met a similar fate

Thank you for the link Miss Lydia

I usually let the mama handle the hatching too but like I said too cold and I couldn't bare to eat the eggs

 

[Miss Lydia]

I lost 3 to a fox, one to exposure and one vanished... my poor girls. Not sure what happen with the one that passed from exposure she just stayed in the pen and died. I assume the one that vanished met a similar fate

Thank you for the link Miss Lydia

I usually let the mama handle the hatching too but like I said too cold and I couldn't bare to eat the eggs

 

[Ren2014]

I lost 3 to a fox, one to exposure and one vanished... my poor girls. Not sure what happen with the one that passed from exposure she just stayed in the pen and died. I assume the one that vanished met a similar fate

Thank you for the link Miss Lydia

I usually let the mama handle the hatching too but like I said too cold and I couldn't bare to eat the eggs

So sorry for your losses. Good luck with the incubation

 

[ellymayRans]

Well I kinda refuse to scan through every post on backyard chickens searching for Muscovy hatching tips so I'm going to ask, and I'm sorry if it's been asked before...
I've had to finish hatches in my incubator when new mamas started tossing out eggs as they pipped and did other odd things, but I've never done a start to finish Muscovy incubation. What are your Muskovy incubation tips (they've been in the bator about three hours lol)?
Side note: I wouldn't usually bother trying to hatch Muscovy, the mamas are so good at it. But I lost all but one of my girls over the winter and it is too cold for her to be brooding, I'm still seeing overnight temperatures as low as -20°C... I couldn't bring myself to eat the eggs so incubator was the logical place to put them

I've hatched quite a few and have had really good success. I followed some instructions online but basically after the first 10 days I leave the incubator open for 20 minutes a day and I use a water bottle to mist them at that time. My incubator is an automatic turner but with them laying down but I still rotate them multiple times a day. Incubation is roughly 35 days and they seem to take longer to hatch once internally pipped than chickens eggs. I stop turning at day 28-30 depending if any have internally pipped, I also keep misting and taking the lid off during that time.

I hope you have a great hatch and so sorry for your loss!

 

[hennible]

Thank you very much
I candled a few, most are developing (I'm a hands on hatcher

)
I will definitely do the cooling and misting. It was in the article Miss Lydia posted and makes great sense to me. They are also laying on their side (I usually incubate up right) but was hoping a more natural position would help... lol
We will see, fingers crossed