Muscovey Duck Egg Discoloration

[StAugBeachBum]

It's day 35 today (hatching day), but for the past 1.5 weeks I've noticed some discoloration on many of the eggs under a Muscovey hen (see photos). Many of the eggs have clearly defined areas of dark and light coloration, which was not present when they are initially laid. I was just curious if anyone had seen or was familiar with this phenomenon, and whether it's something normal or a sign the egg will unfortunately not hatch? In the instance that it is the latter and none of her eggs hatch, so any of you have advice on a humane way of getting her to vacate the nest without traumatizing her?

Also, I know there are a lot of eggs under her (22 total). This is because she and another Muscovey laid a joint nest, but that other female was sadly hit by a car, so this sweetheart has been sitting for two the past month.

 

[Kiki]

Can you take a few indoors into a dark closet and candle them?

 

[StAugBeachBum]

Can you take a few indoors into a dark closet and candle them?

If i could I definitely would, but she's more wild than tame, so I'm unable to approach any closer than the photos I shared.

 

[StAugBeachBum]

So everyone is aware, it is a bad sign when eggs look like this. Sadly, none of the eggs hatched, which was very surprising.

 

[Cassiblu]

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It's day 35 today (hatching day), but for the past 1.5 weeks I've noticed some discoloration on many of the eggs under a Muscovey hen (see photos). Many of the eggs have clearly defined areas of dark and light coloration, which was not present when they are initially laid. I was just curious if anyone had seen or was familiar with this phenomenon, and whether it's something normal or a sign the egg will unfortunately not hatch? In the instance that it is the latter and none of her eggs hatch, so any of you have advice on a humane way of getting her to vacate the nest without traumatizing her?

Also, I know there are a lot of eggs under her (22 total). This is because she and another Muscovey laid a joint nest, but that other female was sadly hit by a car, so this sweetheart has been sitting for two the past month.

We had 5 different nests from local wild muscovy behind our garage in the past. Each nest had between 16-23 eggs. I remember how shocked I was when we counted them! We had never seen a nest or been able to get so close to a duck before. 1 nest had an egg that didn’t hatch. That upset my 5 year old granddaughter terribly, but gave me an open door to explain a bit about animals in nature and the circle of life. She is 7 now. She’s still very curious and has such an absolute love for nature and learning. I truly enjoy watching her excitement. I’m glad we had that chance to document a ducks life from beginning to end… making the nest, laying eggs, sitting and hatching, then leading them down to the pond. We would see them from time to time as we drove past. Saw them learning to swim in the rain puddles alongside the road or all huddled resting under the bushes mid afternoon. After awhile the first nest that left us grew pretty big but weren’t fully adults yet so when we talked about them, she called them the teenagers and the last group were the babies lol. Now they are all adult and we can’t tell them apart anymore. Might not even be the same ones at that pond. But it was an experience we will surely remember.