Hatching muscovy eggs in winter

Sonja1018

Chirping
6 Years
Jul 30, 2014
38
19
97
Texas
I have a Muscovy pair that live with my chickens. Aviva is about 6 months old and has begin laying. I'm pretty certain the eggs are fertilized as Vincent has been a very busy boy.
Recent temperatures have been in the 30s (Fahrenheit) and with just 3 eggs so far, she's not sitting. I want her to hatch the eggs but I worry about these left in the cold while she lays her desired clutch number.
Being winter, is it better to collect and incubate myself or will the first layed eggs be ok in these temps until she's ready to brood?
We're really wanting these to be hatched if possible.

*newish to Muscovies and inexperienced with hatching. Any advice, tips, or tricks are greatly welcome
 
You could pull the eggs as she lays them and store them until she goes broody. I would personally wait until it warms a bit though because my muscovy don't seem to really sit on the ducklings to keep them warm, they could become chilled, plus it's much more pleasant to watch ducklings outside as they grow.
 
Thank You for the reply. :D
You could pull the eggs as she lays them and store them until she goes broody.

How and where do I store the eggs and how long are they viable?

What are the pros and cons of incubating the eggs inside?
 
I think you store them fat end up in an egg carton set at an angle, rotating the up end daily until you incubate them, and keep them between 50-75 or so, you could probably get good information in the hatching thread. The advantage of you incubating them is then you would brood them and they would be tamer as well as a lower risk of losing some.

The cons of it is it's time consuming, less hatch rate, I think, and you have to tend to messy ducklings.

It's really about how much time you want to spend and whether tame ducks are important to you.
 

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