Hatching my first Muscovy babies, please help!

[MommaDuck78]

Hello everyone, being a new mama to Muscovy ducks for the very first time last year I raised my first two together being French whites. Miss Daisy and mr. Duke. After they were of age and I realized Duke need more females i picked out two females that were under a year old to bring home for him. Out of all three of my girls oh, it has been a very big learning experience trying to get live ducklings. Between my three girls Daisy my oldest, has sat twice and Lily and Dahlia have both set once. Being inexperienced first-time mothers we didn't have any luck with live ducklings having three ducklings sit 4 different times. I also put duck eggs in incubator twice with no success of life hatchings. Then I finally got a digital temperature and humidity controlled smaller incubator and I put three of Miss Daisy's eggs in there from her clutch this time.I have had a lot of success so far I have three live ducklings inside of three eggs but my issue is that egg number one seems to have her head stuck in between her thighs so I don't know if she's going to zip. Right now as of 36 to 38 hours after the first external pip, she has made progress but it seems like her little beak can't come very far out of the hole and her little thighs are on each side of her beak. My question is when do I know for sure that the blood vessels are receded so I can help her out? these three ducklings mean the world to me right now after trying six different times between my female ducks and the incubator over the last year.... I really need to see this little girl make it out alive. That is egg number one from daisies clutch, egg number 3 officially has a crack today and egg number 2 is officially starting to break into the air sac as of 4 hours ago. I really really want to make sure all three of these ducklings make it out alive it means the world to me at this point especially where all three eggs are from my very first baby Miss Daisy. Daisy and Duke were given to me when they were six days old last year after I lost a kitty cat. Daisy lets me pick her up and she snuggles into my neck and nibbles on my cheek so knowing that these are her babies I'm hoping for at least one more male and two more females alive.....

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Enlarge the pip hole. If you see blood than you know it's too soon. You can open it a bit so the duckling doesn't suffocate. I generally slowly enlarge the hole over the course of the day until I free the head, but only as far as I don't see blood.

 

[nchls school]

Hello everyone, being a new mama to Muscovy ducks for the very first time last year I raised my first two together being French whites. Miss Daisy and mr. Duke. After they were of age and I realized Duke need more females i picked out two females that were under a year old to bring home for him. Out of all three of my girls oh, it has been a very big learning experience trying to get live ducklings. Between my three girls Daisy my oldest, has sat twice and Lily and Dahlia have both set once. Being inexperienced first-time mothers we didn't have any luck with live ducklings having three ducklings sit 4 different times. I also put duck eggs in incubator twice with no success of life hatchings. Then I finally got a digital temperature and humidity controlled smaller incubator and I put three of Miss Daisy's eggs in there from her clutch this time.I have had a lot of success so far I have three live ducklings inside of three eggs but my issue is that egg number one seems to have her head stuck in between her thighs so I don't know if she's going to zip. Right now as of 36 to 38 hours after the first external pip, she has made progress but it seems like her little beak can't come very far out of the hole and her little thighs are on each side of her beak. My question is when do I know for sure that the blood vessels are receded so I can help her out? these three ducklings mean the world to me right now after trying six different times between my female ducks and the incubator over the last year.... I really need to see this little girl make it out alive. That is egg number one from daisies clutch, egg number 3 officially has a crack today and egg number 2 is officially starting to break into the air sac as of 4 hours ago. I really really want to make sure all three of these ducklings make it out alive it means the world to me at this point especially where all three eggs are from my very first baby Miss Daisy. Daisy and Duke were given to me when they were six days old last year after I lost a kitty cat. Daisy lets me pick her up and she snuggles into my neck and nibbles on my cheek so knowing that these are her babies I'm hoping for at least one more male and two more females alive.....

First-You should not be opening the incubator unless it's absolutely necessary. Each time it is opened the humidity and temperature fluctuate; this is not good when eggs are hatching.

Second-When the membrane covering the duckling is bloodless or nearly so (the membrane will no longer be milky white with plump veins, it will be more translucent), and the duckling is making no progress it is time to assist. Carefully remove the shell and membrane on the rounded end enough so the duckling can push its way out. Push the membrane back off the body a bit so it does not dry and stick.
Return the egg to the incubator and let the duckling struggle out when the time is right. If you take the duckling completely out of the shell, the yolk may not be completely absorbed and the duckling will die. Good luck.

 

[MommaDuck78]

Enlarge the pip hole. If you see blood than you know it's too soon. You can open it a bit so the duckling doesn't suffocate. I generally slowly enlarge the hole over the course of the day until I free the head, but only as far as I don't see blood.

Thank you very much for your response. She was shrink-wrapped and it was stuck to her poor little head over her eye, one of her wings and her little bum. I just now finished helping unstick her there was no more blood vessels. She is out finally after about 53 hours possibly longer and she is big and beautiful and doing good!!

 

[MommaDuck78]

First-You should not be opening the incubator unless it's absolutely necessary. Each time it is opened the humidity and temperature fluctuate; this is not good when eggs are hatching.

Second-When the membrane covering the duckling is bloodless or nearly so (the membrane will no longer be milky white with plump veins, it will be more translucent), and the duckling is making no progress it is time to assist. Carefully remove the shell and membrane on the rounded end enough so the duckling can push its way out. Push the membrane back off the body a bit so it does not dry and stick.
Return the egg to the incubator and let the duckling struggle out when the time is right. If you take the duckling completely out of the shell, the yolk may not be completely absorbed and the duckling will die. Good luck.

Thank you very much for your reply, she is finally out and doing good

 

[MommaDuck78]

Thank you everybody so much for all of your advice and help. I've been helping her get out slowly over the last hour. The membrane was stuck to her poor little face over her right eye, one of her wings and her little bum. So I had to carefully peel that away from her and then she pop the rest of the way out by herself! She is doing good she is big and beautiful! Her mama, lays jumbo-sized Muscovy eggs. Two of my girls do actually. Daisy and Dahlia hatch out 83 to 89 gram eggs every time single yolk!! so I knew she was going to be a big baby hatching out 3 of Miss Daisy's eggs. She's so long and her legs are even longer LOL

 

[nchls school]

 

[MommaDuck78]

 

[MommaDuck78]

She was so sticky and yucky that when she started drying it wasn't getting fluffy so I gave her a warm bath in the sink to wash her off with a little bit of Dawn dish soap, then I had her in my lap with a towel and very warm heating pad and she fell asleep

and now she's dry and warm and sleeping on her food bowl waiting for her two siblings to come out and join her.

 

[nchls school]

Very cute. Good luck with the next ones.