Last year, we raised our first batch of eight day-old muscovy and rouens to maturity. When one of the muscovies went broody, we allowed her to sit on about 10 eggs. A week ago, we found a healthy, hatched rouen duckling and a second roeun egg one that was hatching. Unfortunately, the first duckling died (it drowned in two inches of water... stupid, stupid human error, I know) and the second one died shortly after hatching. Mama duck has continued sitting on her eggs but as the days go by, we're finding less eggs in the nest and more ducklings that have already died still partly in the shell (they're not completely mature - close though - so we're wondering if she breaks them open and then pushes them far away from the nest site).
Was it a beginner's mistake to let nature take its course?? Should we have intervened sooner? I'm concerned that perhaps since the first duckling hatched sooner than the others, bacteria from that hatching was introduced into the nest. I added clean shavings to the nest but I wanted to stay as hands-off as possible and leave mama duck to do her thing.
Can anyone give me any advice for next time or perhaps some good online or book resources? Should I have candled them sooner and removed any bad/dead eggs? Is it possible to be hands-off and not end up with so many lost ducklings? This has been so heart-wrenching to watch...
Thanks
Was it a beginner's mistake to let nature take its course?? Should we have intervened sooner? I'm concerned that perhaps since the first duckling hatched sooner than the others, bacteria from that hatching was introduced into the nest. I added clean shavings to the nest but I wanted to stay as hands-off as possible and leave mama duck to do her thing.
Can anyone give me any advice for next time or perhaps some good online or book resources? Should I have candled them sooner and removed any bad/dead eggs? Is it possible to be hands-off and not end up with so many lost ducklings? This has been so heart-wrenching to watch...
Thanks
