JUNE - JULY HATCH-ALONG!!!!!!!

[AquaDuck]

Hi all! New month, new hatch-a-long! (sorry this is a long post)

This month I will only have one hatch, but it'll be a big one. 40 muscovy duck eggs are due the 8th. I've had THE worst luck with the ducks this year, many late deaths.

I've identified 2 problems: insufficient turning since I put them small-end-down. This time they're on their side, and an additional 180 degree manual turn each day. 2nd problem I noticed when I first candled the eggs. The bottom tray had 5 undeveloped eggs, while the top had none. All duck eggs have been incubated in the bottom tray. I've swapped them twice a day from day 7.

I found this article: Artificial Incubation of Muscovy Ducks (pdf link at the bottom) that found a correlation between egg size/shape and late deaths. The late deaths in this experiment were smaller and lighter than the normal hatches. I decided to put that to the test and measured all my eggs.

The average egg is about 6,6 cm long and 70 grams.
(L on the side means small air bubble. (smal = narrow, rund = round, spiss = pointy))
I also marked their air bubbles, which are a bit small for my liking.

So now I'll wait and see...

 

[two j farm]

Did you all know that there is another June July hatch along going???

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/june-to-july-hatch-a-long.1318338/

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Hi all! New month, new hatch-a-long! (sorry this is a long post)

This month I will only have one hatch, but it'll be a big one. 40 muscovy duck eggs are due the 8th. I've had THE worst luck with the ducks this year, many late deaths.

I've identified 2 problems: insufficient turning since I put them small-end-down. This time they're on their side, and an additional 180 degree manual turn each day. 2nd problem I noticed when I first candled the eggs. The bottom tray had 5 undeveloped eggs, while the top had none. All duck eggs have been incubated in the bottom tray. I've swapped them twice a day from day 7.

I found this article: Artificial Incubation of Muscovy Ducks (pdf link at the bottom) that found a correlation between egg size/shape and late deaths. The late deaths in this experiment were smaller and lighter than the normal hatches. I decided to put that to the test and measured all my eggs.

View attachment 1830142
The average egg is about 6,6 cm long and 70 grams.
(L on the side means small air bubble. (smal = narrow, rund = round, spiss = pointy))
I also marked their air bubbles, which are a bit small for my liking.
View attachment 1830143

So now I'll wait and see...

Best of luck with your muscovies - they have such a long incubation time!!! What day were the air cells drawn on?

 

[starri33]

I'm holding off till Tuesday to see if I get any more hatches, but right now it's not looking good, I set 30 eggs total, lost 3 to breakage and now have just 7 chirping little loud mouths, that's what about a 25% hatch rate? I'm going to have to blame it on operator error and un-fertile eggs, I've got 6 that I am 99.9 percent sure aren't fertile. But the best thing, the 7 that are here are doing fine, eating on their own and you can hear them down the block..lol.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I'm holding off till Tuesday to see if I get any more hatches, but right now it's not looking good, I set 30 eggs total, lost 3 to breakage and now have just 7 chirping little loud mouths, that's what about a 25% hatch rate? I'm going to have to blame it on operator error and un-fertile eggs, I've got 6 that I am 99.9 percent sure aren't fertile. But the best thing, the 7 that are here are doing fine, eating on their own and you can hear them down the block..lol.

We recently had 2/6 home bred birds hatch, pretty poor rate! I keep looking at the two that made it and wonder what was different about them, but am thrilled and grateful at how healthy they look!

 

[starri33]

@Mixed flock enthusiast , it's hard to know what went wrong, but I'm glad to hear that your two that hatched are doing well. my first hatch was a 6 out of 6, the next few were 5 out of 6, the final for the small incubator before it got put up for a while was a 3 out of 6, this one so far has been dismal. I've got 6 in the small incubator, no signs of hatching, had 21 in the big one, 7 have hatched, 6 at least I am sure are un-fertile. 2 more I have questions about, but the remaining looked just fine when I put them on lock down. So I don't know..

 

[EliseTheFarmKid]

The coturnix quail hatch rate is already MUCH better than my previous bobwhite quail hatch rate!!!
Also!! Both of my muscovies pipped! I can finally breath a small sigh of relief. They’re still kicking! Still trying!

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

@Mixed flock enthusiast , it's hard to know what went wrong, but I'm glad to hear that your two that hatched are doing well. my first hatch was a 6 out of 6, the next few were 5 out of 6, the final for the small incubator before it got put up for a while was a 3 out of 6, this one so far has been dismal. I've got 6 in the small incubator, no signs of hatching, had 21 in the big one, 7 have hatched, 6 at least I am sure are un-fertile. 2 more I have questions about, but the remaining looked just fine when I put them on lock down. So I don't know..

Great on the earlier hatches at least! I hadn’t hatched since last year, and I had to get a new incubator in between. I had three great hatches last year (chicks, ducks, guineas) and bought a similar incubator so didn’t expect problems . I guess we need some bad luck to keep us humble... I’m still incubating guinea eggs, and trying to troubleshoot the bator at the same time!We’ll see how the guinea hatch goes in a little less than two weeks!

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

View attachment 1830880
The coturnix quail hatch rate is already MUCH better than my previous bobwhite quail hatch rate!!!
Also!! Both of my muscovies pipped! I can finally breath a small sigh of relief. They’re still kicking! Still trying!

Looks like a packed field of soccer balls in there with the players warming up... Congratulations on the quail and GL on the muscovies!!!

 

[starri33]

@Mixed flock enthusiast , crossing my fingers for you.. hoping they all hatch.. I'm not giving up by any means, just got to figure out what I did wrong, the ones that I got from a friend had the most non-fertile.. his Roo might have been napping my flock, out of the 7 chirping in the guest room, 6 are from them. Just depressing when you'd hoped for a good hatch.