Good morning BYC peeps ~ I shall do my utmost to keep this brief. I will offer my mea culpa up front: I did not do my due diligence & research before making a decision, & now I see the problem I've given myself. I should have known better. Here's the situation: a year ago I accepted a Pekin duckling as a rescue, from pretty terrible conditions. A couple months later, once "Tweety" was nearly mature, I realized s/he wasn't quite happy with the flock of chickens, turkeys, and peafowl... I went on a search for a duck-buddy. I found a Muscovy drake who was in need of placement & brought him home. The first few weeks were a bit rough--we realized very quickly that poor Tweets was, in fact, a hen (much to Hell-Duck's delight)--as "Daffy, aka "Hell-Duck" serial-r*ped her at every opportunity. LOL. They are now inseparable. Fast forward to this spring. Tweets is laying eggs all over the property (new name: Egg-Drop-Duck). I've gathered a bunch to incubate in a bigger bater coming this weekend. I set 6 in my Brinsea last night ... Problem: I didn't realize Muscovy ducks took longer to incubate than 'normal' ducks. What the HECK do I do? Where do I stop turning them? Any help is appreciated!!! Carlene
I would just candle them each day, and stop turning when they start pipping internally. I've also seen people suggest stopping turning for the last week of incubation [day 14 for chickens, so it'd be day 21 or a bit later for your ducks] to decrease the chances of malpositioned chicks. I've had muscovies and other duck breeds, including pekins, before, but I don't know if they bred and generally broody ducks did the egg sitting.
