Muscovy eggs at different stages in the same incubator- what to do at lockdown?

[LHP]

Hello!
I’m brand new to this! My kids and I just moved to the family farm and are attempting to incubate Muscovy eggs from my dad’s small flock. It was a spur of the moment decision and now it has become an obsession.

I purchased a 12 egg hhd incubator and took out the auto turn tray to accommodate more eggs. The ducks have been leaving 1-4 eggs at a time and I’ve just been putting them in the incubator as we find them. I’ve been weighing and candling them, and aside from a couple bad ones that have been discarded, they look great.

So now, I’ve got 12 eggs in there ranging from day 18 to day 1. For misting/cooling, I’ve just been moving the older eggs out of the incubator for 15 min or so.

What do I do at lockdown time(s)? I’m worried about the reduced temp affecting the others’ development. Should I purchase a cheap still air incubator just for lockdown? Money is tight, and I’m no hurry to buy another one, but we’d be heartbroken if we lose them all.

For future reference, should I let eggs accumulate before incubating them to avoid such a wide spread?

Thank you and sorry for the wordy post!

 

[AquaDuck]

Hello!
I’m brand new to this! My kids and I just moved to the family farm and are attempting to incubate Muscovy eggs from my dad’s small flock. It was a spur of the moment decision and now it has become an obsession.

I purchased a 12 egg hhd incubator and took out the auto turn tray to accommodate more eggs. The ducks have been leaving 1-4 eggs at a time and I’ve just been putting them in the incubator as we find them. I’ve been weighing and candling them, and aside from a couple bad ones that have been discarded, they look great.

So now, I’ve got 12 eggs in there ranging from day 18 to day 1. For misting/cooling, I’ve just been moving the older eggs out of the incubator for 15 min or so.

What do I do at lockdown time(s)? I’m worried about the reduced temp affecting the others’ development. Should I purchase a cheap still air incubator just for lockdown? Money is tight, and I’m no hurry to buy another one, but we’d be heartbroken if we lose them all.

For future reference, should I let eggs accumulate before incubating them to avoid such a wide spread?

Thank you and sorry for the wordy post!

The absolute best to gather eggs over a 7-10 period time and put them all in the incubator together. The temp and humidity is quite different during hatching.

Can you borrow an second incubator? It would certainly reduce the risk of losing either the hatching eggs or the developing ones. Muscovies can take 2 days from ext pip to fully hatched, and when they're out they thrash around a lot and can disturb the other eggs.

 

[Isaac 0]

I agree, you'd be best off purchasing a cheap incubator until the rest hatch, return it or just keep it afterwards.

 

[LHP]

Thank you so much!

I’m currently shopping for an additional incubator

I have lots of experience hatching reptile eggs and zero avian egg experience, so when my kids found the abandoned eggs by the pond and I said “sure!”, I had no clue what I was getting into Snakes and turtles are soooooo easy!

Thanks for the help!
Lindsey