How to hatch Muscovy

[FarmAir]

So, here's the deal. Does anybody know any tips/ tricks? Is their humidity lower than other breeds? Ive noticed they live and move up until hatch day, then they die before they start pipping. I could say I've gone through about a hundred eggs and this is what happens every time. I know they take 35 days to hatch. So im not cutting their time short.
Ive hatched lots of other duck breeds and never had this much trouble.
The reason i mention the humidity is because when i crack the egg to see where it went wrong there is still quit a bit of yolk and there's lots of clear jelly in there....other than that the chicks look darn near fully formed. My hens refuse to sit on them. I'd like to get some babies hatched before the season is over. If you gave me any other duck breed eggs to put in the incubator I'd have at least a 90% hatch, these Muscovys have me stumped!

 

[JaeG]

How frustrating.

I kept the humidity at 40-45% when I incubated some. Maybe try dropping the temperature a little for lockdown - 98-98.5 was what I read. The ducklings are generating a bit of heat at that stage so if your incubator is quite full they may be overheating. And ventilation is very important for Muscovy eggs. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies in your breeding birds can also cause late embryo deaths from what I've read.

Weighing the eggs using a gram scale is the best way to ensure they are losing enough weight. Much easier than scrutinizing air cells. They should lose around 12% by lockdown. You can use a simple line graph to keep track of the weights and weigh them all together, working out the average to plot on your graph. I do days along the bottom and the weight range I need up the side. Before the eggs are set I weigh them and work out the average and this is what I plot on day 0. Work out what 12% of that number is and plot it on day 32. Draw a line between those two points and then at any stage in incubation you can reweigh them to check if they are on track or if you need to adjust the humidity up or down. Because you are using the average it doesn't matter if eggs have to be removed because they aren't developing or have died.

for next time!