Magnificent Marvelous Muscovies!

[Anime2lover]

I had a duck sit on 5 chicken eggs, she hatched one but we then had a spring heatwave and she was too hot for the eggs and cooked other 4 chicks before they hatched. I'm curious how chickens hatch ducklings as they don't seem to run as hot. Definetly looking forward to seeing how it goes for you

Me to. Didnt have much luck with the chicks we tried due mostly to low fertility (got only one out of 16 eggs under two different hens.) So now we put duck eggs we know are fertil from our incubator, under the broody hen that isnt taking care of a chick. Dont get me wrong, my new chick, baby, is absolutely adorable, but one chick isnt enough to really show me how they raise them naturally.

Ive raised them myself twice now (first time for ducks though, and my first clutch of ducklings, oreo included, are doing well)

 

[Claires Poultry]

Do we have anyone here that incubates their own eggs? As I plan to grow my ducklings for eating, and while I have a 95% hatch rate we only have a 45% survival rate leaving them with mum I want to up my survival rates. I don't have the heart (or the guts) to take them from mumma duck once she hatches them

I let my Muscovy hens hatch their eggs and raise their ducklings.

 

[Claires Poultry]

View attachment 1791527 Meanwhile, her sister is a young independent hen. She skipped her home-economics class in school. Actually, she skipped a lot of classes.

@Daphne_loves_mealworms That's so silly! I love the way you talk about your ducks! You have such a good way of describing it!

 

[AquaDuck]

Do we have anyone here that incubates their own eggs? As I plan to grow my ducklings for eating, and while I have a 95% hatch rate we only have a 45% survival rate leaving them with mum I want to up my survival rates. I don't have the heart (or the guts) to take them from mumma duck once she hatches them

All but one of my ducks are forbidden to brood. They do the incubation part well, but kill their babies by crushing them under their bodies or neglecting them when they get off the nest. Too heartbreaking to find drowned, chilled or abandoned babies, so they're not allowed to try anymore... I'd rather shove the incubator full of eggs and have a low hatch rate, but every one of the ducklings live to adulthood.

 

[Muscovy Wunda]

All but one of my ducks are forbidden to brood. They do the incubation part well, but kill their babies by crushing them under their bodies or neglecting them when they get off the nest. Too heartbreaking to find drowned, chilled or abandoned babies, so they're not allowed to try anymore... I'd rather shove the incubator full of eggs and have a low hatch rate, but every one of the ducklings live to adulthood.

This is a good point. Death by crushing does not sound pleasent at all. My husbands been doing lots of research on building a 5 star duck brooder, and as we are going into winter now it will hopefully be ready by spring .

 

[Geranium]

This little cutie is almost two weeks old and doing great!

 

[Anime2lover]

This little cutie is almost two weeks old and doing great! View attachment 1800688

Cute!!

 

[Muscovy Wunda]

This little cutie is almost two weeks old and doing great! View attachment 1800688

Love the beak and leg colouring

 

[Muscovy Wunda]

morning all! How's everyones duckies going?

 

[AquaDuck]

I've had another terrible 'scovy hatch with only 3 out of the 10 who made it 'till day 30 made it out.

I think I've figured out what I've done wrong this year, so I'm gonna gamble on one last massive incubation. 46 eggs!! That's the most I've ever done in one batch.