Hello all! I have Muscovy ducks and I have a few questions.
I have three hens and one drake. So far, out of 46 eggs, all 46 are showing positive when candled (there may be more, I just couldn't reach them in the nesting areas). My first question is, with natural incubation, is it common to have 100% fertility rate and no bad eggs? All my ducks are around a year old.
Two of the eggs, the mothers had accidentally cracked. They would be around 10 and 15 days along (or a little more) when candling them. There is one from each nest. The cracks are very significant, but nothing is dripping out of the egg or anything. Should I leave them be and try to allow them to hatch? Or is this something that I should do? The cracks happened recently (I believe today or yesterday).
I was planning on butchering some muscovies when they were 12 weeks old, but how can I sex them at this age?
My last question is if it is OK to butcher year old ducks or are they too old and the meat will not be that great?
I have three hens and one drake. So far, out of 46 eggs, all 46 are showing positive when candled (there may be more, I just couldn't reach them in the nesting areas). My first question is, with natural incubation, is it common to have 100% fertility rate and no bad eggs? All my ducks are around a year old.
Two of the eggs, the mothers had accidentally cracked. They would be around 10 and 15 days along (or a little more) when candling them. There is one from each nest. The cracks are very significant, but nothing is dripping out of the egg or anything. Should I leave them be and try to allow them to hatch? Or is this something that I should do? The cracks happened recently (I believe today or yesterday).
I was planning on butchering some muscovies when they were 12 weeks old, but how can I sex them at this age?
My last question is if it is OK to butcher year old ducks or are they too old and the meat will not be that great?
