Duck eggs

[HeatherKellyB]

If none of her 5 eggs are growing, you could slip the viable eggs from your incubator underneath her in the middle of the night. You'll need to keep the light to a minimum in hopes of not waking her. If her eggs are growing but have different hatch dates than the incubator eggs, I'm not sure if I would put them under her, adding to her nest or not. Let's see what @Miss Lydia says. I'm anxious to find out how the eggs under her are doing, so please update us whenever you are able to candle them

 

[Txfarm]

Ok, thanks so very much for the advice. I am going to candle her 5 eggs tonight, I will share what I find.

 

[addctd2plnts]

Ok, thanks so very much for the advice. I am going to candle her 5 eggs tonight, I will share what I find.

What she's worried is going to happen, is that if you put those eggs under her and they hatch 3 days before the others, then she will abandon the remaining eggs. Somebody can correct me if I'm wrong here, because I'm a newbie too LOL I think they lay an egg a day till the clutch is laid, then they begin setting. This way all the eggs hatch at the same time. Any that don't hatch that day are abandoned when she takes the others out of the nest. SOoooo, if you slip those eggs that are 3 days older under her, they'll hatch and she'll leave the nest, thinking that the others aren't viable. It might be a better idea to simply ADD those babies to hers, once hers are hatched? I'm not sure if she'll accept them though. Somebody chime in and say if my reasoning is correct.....

 

[Txfarm]

Morning, I candled Elsa’s eggs yesterday and all 6 of them have a little duckling growing! I did notice that her eggs are a little behind the eggs that I have in the incubator. So d I add mine to her nest? Maybe one at a time?

 

[addctd2plnts]

Morning, I candled Elsa’s eggs yesterday and all 6 of them have a little duckling growing! I did notice that her eggs are a little behind the eggs that I have in the incubator. So d I add mine to her nest?

Not sure if you read my post above. If you add those eggs to her nest, I'm 99% sure when they hatch 3 days before HER eggs, you will be KILLING the babies she has sat on. Birds sit so that all the eggs hatch at once. Once your eggs hatch, she will no longer sit on the remaining eggs. How about you add your incubator hatchlings AFTER she hatches her own eggs? That way, her eggs won't die.

 

[Txfarm]

Ok, thanks. No I agree with you. The last thing I want to do is to kill any of the ducklings, we have waited a long time for Elsa to hatch out babies.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

3 days is a big difference when it comes to duck eggs hatching. Muscovy eggs take about 35 days, but can go a bit longer even. So, if the eggs hatch 3 days early, she potentially can abandon the eggs or abandon the ducklings to continue sitting on the unhatched eggs. Muscovy are very determined brooders. It might be easier to continue to incubate and then place the hatched ducklings under her once the others hatch. However, you would want to do this at night and observe her for a bit to see that she accepts them.

 

[Txfarm]

Thank you!