Hi all, I seem to have a problem with my Muscovy ducks constantly putting cracks in their eggs, one of the more recent incidents was when there was a crack in an egg, so I fixed it with candle wax and the embreyo kept growing, I went to check on it yesterday and about a 1.5 cm circle of membrane was showing, the shell had been taken off, I candled to egg and the baby was still moving inside! I put some wax around the weakest parts of the egg but left the membrane and hoped it would survive until it was ready to come out, I went to check on it today and more shell was missing, there was fluid in the air sack and the baby wasn't moving at all, even when I rotated the egg there was still no movement.
So knowing the baby was dead I peeled back some of the membrane and instantly I saw green inside what looked like the white of the egg, I peeled it back further and tipped out the contents, unfortunatley I saw the baby, almost fully feathered with developed feat, wings, basically everything but a beak, and in minture version, no movement at all, I suspect it died a day or so ago, it took up about half of the egg in size.
So my question is, besides from constantly loosing ducklings/embreyo's and repairing cracked eggs, how can I stop the girls from cracking their eggs? 2 of them are broody and have 2 nests (I know they shouldn't share eggs but the only way I can stop this would be to separate them, and because there is only 1 hen house it means one would have to sleep outside or I would have to take away the fertile and developing eggs to take them out of 'broodyness'), when one gets off the nest the other moves the eggs under her, non of the eggs are Muscovy eggs but are Rouen eggs as the Rouens are the only ones who will let the male near them.
Any suggestions? I don't have an incubator as I wouldn't be able to turn the eggs 3 times a day and the auto ones are too expensive...
No pics as I still can't figure out how to charge my camera and I don't have a lead to transfer pics from my phone.
I'd hate to get no ducklings after all of the effort the girls have put in.
So knowing the baby was dead I peeled back some of the membrane and instantly I saw green inside what looked like the white of the egg, I peeled it back further and tipped out the contents, unfortunatley I saw the baby, almost fully feathered with developed feat, wings, basically everything but a beak, and in minture version, no movement at all, I suspect it died a day or so ago, it took up about half of the egg in size.
So my question is, besides from constantly loosing ducklings/embreyo's and repairing cracked eggs, how can I stop the girls from cracking their eggs? 2 of them are broody and have 2 nests (I know they shouldn't share eggs but the only way I can stop this would be to separate them, and because there is only 1 hen house it means one would have to sleep outside or I would have to take away the fertile and developing eggs to take them out of 'broodyness'), when one gets off the nest the other moves the eggs under her, non of the eggs are Muscovy eggs but are Rouen eggs as the Rouens are the only ones who will let the male near them.
Any suggestions? I don't have an incubator as I wouldn't be able to turn the eggs 3 times a day and the auto ones are too expensive...
No pics as I still can't figure out how to charge my camera and I don't have a lead to transfer pics from my phone.
I'd hate to get no ducklings after all of the effort the girls have put in.