Ok so my youngest sexually mature Muscovy duck decided she wanted to be a mommy and began sitting on her eggs during one of the coldest weeks in Southern California I can recall. She is very little physically and has never sat before, and I didn't encourage her to sit so I didn't have proper insulating bedding in her lay box at the start. She started to stay in her nest (but got out every other day for an hour at a time to eat and wash) on March 5th, so I started counting from that day.
This was my first hatch too, and I didn't really know how to candle the eggs properly on my second attempt on March 27th. So I screwed up and thought that the few (4 out of 12 that she was sitting on) eggs that were dark when I checked them were dead. The other 8 eggs were clear, so I knew they hadn't developed. I decided to crack the dark eggs open as a learning experience, to see how far they did develop before they died. When I cracked open the first one, it moved for a moment so I realized it had been alive and viable till I killed it. I immediately put the remaining three dark eggs back under mommy, but removed the other 8 clear eggs. Two days later though, she gave up her nest so I popped them in my incubator and learned how to properly candle them. I could see movement from only two of them, and it looked like all three of them were at different levels of development. Now we are over a week late from what my original estimated due-date for the hatch was, but as late as last night I could see that the two moving ones were still moving when I candled them. I know you aren't supposed to candle this late in the "game", but at this point I have no idea how far along they really are so I don't know when to start lock-down.
I took pictures of the embryo (fetus?) of the egg I already cracked on the 27th. Can anyone with a lot more experience than myself please tell me how far along you estimate it's development? Oh and sorry about the dirt, I rinsed it off but all of the "clean" pictures came out too blurry to see anything.
This was my first hatch too, and I didn't really know how to candle the eggs properly on my second attempt on March 27th. So I screwed up and thought that the few (4 out of 12 that she was sitting on) eggs that were dark when I checked them were dead. The other 8 eggs were clear, so I knew they hadn't developed. I decided to crack the dark eggs open as a learning experience, to see how far they did develop before they died. When I cracked open the first one, it moved for a moment so I realized it had been alive and viable till I killed it. I immediately put the remaining three dark eggs back under mommy, but removed the other 8 clear eggs. Two days later though, she gave up her nest so I popped them in my incubator and learned how to properly candle them. I could see movement from only two of them, and it looked like all three of them were at different levels of development. Now we are over a week late from what my original estimated due-date for the hatch was, but as late as last night I could see that the two moving ones were still moving when I candled them. I know you aren't supposed to candle this late in the "game", but at this point I have no idea how far along they really are so I don't know when to start lock-down.
I took pictures of the embryo (fetus?) of the egg I already cracked on the 27th. Can anyone with a lot more experience than myself please tell me how far along you estimate it's development? Oh and sorry about the dirt, I rinsed it off but all of the "clean" pictures came out too blurry to see anything.
Last edited:
