hatching duck egg question

[irisshiller]

I have a duck egg in my incubator right now... This egg is a bit of a mystery! One of my female muscovies has been brooding on a nest of welsh harlequin eggs. Because of the extreme heat, only 2 hatched, then the female left the nest. Most of the eggs were only half developed, but there was one I thought might still hatch. I gave it to a chicken who was conveniently sitting on plastic eggs The egg didnt hatch and I thought it was dead. I gave the chicken a motherless chick and she's happily walking around with it now. I took the egg to throw it away - then felt it moving and tapping in my hand I candled it and saw a moving, live chick inside, with its beak in the aircell. The egg is about a week late now, unless I was mistaken and it's a muscovy egg (or a mule...) I put it in my incubator this morning. I have never tried to hatch duck eggs this way. I want to do everything I can to make sure this miracle duckling hatches... does it need special care right now? High humidity, misting..? Thanks for any advice or previous experiences!

 

[irisshiller]

Hi... trying again with a new question
The egg is now busy hatching, so I suppose there was enough humidity. He's zipped around the egg but now seems to be resting before pushing the egg open.

I was just wondering if it's going to be possible to get the mother duck to adopt this duckling later on? Would it work if I slip the duckling under her at night, like with chickens? She has one week-old duckling right now. I'm hoping she will raise this one, too - I would prefer him not to grow up alone.

Hoping that someone has tried this successfully before