Hatching Question

[BarredBuff]

One of my muscovies is laying right now, 8 eggs in 8 days. I have been leaving them down there. What is the clutch size for them? How long before they lose fertility?

 

[Amiga]

Until a muscovy person can weigh in, I can share what I have read. I seem to recall that they tend to sit on a bunch of eggs - like, in the teens (16, 18, etc.). I doubt they'll lose fertility in the time frame it takes to lay those eggs. Is this her first season laying?

 

[BarredBuff]

Quote:
This is her first year......

 

[duckyfromoz]

Can I suggest that you start to mark the eggs now before you get too many in that nest. Knowing which are older or younger eggs may help later on if she does go broody. She may keep laying so long that eggs may have to be removed from the nest- and working out then which are the oldest ones can be difficult. The viability of eggs does start to decrease as they age but ducks dont know this and base a decision to sit around that- and they still hatch out ducklings from eggs that are two weeks and older at times. When incubating I generally set eggs within 5 days- but its a bit different when you are waiting for a duck to go broody.