Muscovy hen pushing eggs out of nest

[cajun41887]

First time broody Muscovy has been sitting on eggs for close to a month now and suddenly pushed out 2 eggs from the nest this morning. Those eggs had live ducks in them so I popped them in my incubator. Went out tonight and she had pushed out another. Egg was cold and I thought duckling was dead, but still alive so added to my incubator. Why is she suddenly pushing eggs out when she’s been so good about sitting? Do I take the other 3 from her and put in incubator?

 

[casportpony]

First time broody Muscovy has been sitting on eggs for close to a month now and suddenly pushed out 2 eggs from the nest this morning. Those eggs had live ducks in them so I popped them in my incubator. Went out tonight and she had pushed out another. Egg was cold and I thought duckling was dead, but still alive so added to my incubator. Why is she suddenly pushing eggs out when she’s been so good about sitting? Do I take the other 3 from her and put in incubator?

I'm not sure why they do that, but lots of mine do it too, so I do like you did and put them in the incubator and hatch them. They always hatch, so it's not like there is anything wrong with them.

So now she has just the three? I think I would leave those with her and watch her closely.

 

[Going Quackers]

Sometimes it's inexperience. I myself have no incubator so i never bothered nor had a way to "save" discarded eggs.

Mind you sometimes, the eggs are no good either, being she's a first timer it probably is more on the newbie issue side.

I have had ducks abandon a nest when they were new at it all, heck i had one who was a duckling killer but oddly enough years later when she sat a nest she did just fine... and successfully raised oodles...

Take the discards and see if she holds onto any, if she starts tossing the whole nest by all means use your incubator.

I'm sure others will chime in that is just my advice based on my experience, good luck!

 

[chickens really]

If she knows the eggs are not viable she pushes them out. Or will kill Ducklings that hatch that are not right.

 

[casportpony]

I think we'll have to agree to disagree because when my hens push eggs out, 99% of the time they *are* viable, and those hens are sometimes sitting on truly non-viable eggs (all black looking like they are going to explode), so if the pushing out because they are not viable theory is correct, I would expect them to push out the rotten ones first, and I would expect the live ones pushed out not to hatch in an incubator.

 

[Fields Mountain Farm]

I think we'll have to agree to disagree because when my hens push eggs out, 99% of the time they *are* viable, and those hens are sometimes sitting on truly non-viable eggs (all black looking like they are going to explode), so if the pushing out because they are not viable theory is correct, I would expect them to push out the rotten ones first, and I would expect the live ones pushed out not to hatch in an incubator.

Ive had chickens do the same thing. And lots of times the eggs they kicked out were viable but the ones they kept were long gone..

 

[cajun41887]

She pushed another out tonight. It’s internally pipped. In bator now with the one she pushed out last week and that one is doing well. I have chicken eggs in bator and they are due to hatch in 6 days! What the heck do I do with humidity?!? Obviously I turned egg turner off, but chicken eggs still need turned don’t they? I’m afraid to open incubator cause I dry incubate (humidity at 20-30%). What do I do about humidity now since ducks need high humidity to hatch?

 

[Miss Lydia]

@Pyxis @WVduckchick

 

[Pyxis]

Well, I think wondering about whether her pushing them out means they are viable or not is a moot point, since the OP has already stated that the eggs she pushed out do have live ducklings in them, which I expect was verified by candling.

I agree that it can be inexperience. Also, sometimes hens are just interested in sitting on eggs and don't really want to have ducklings. A friend I know had a hen that was dedicated sitter, very good about tending her eggs - and as soon as they hatched, she killed them all. She didn't want babies, she just wanted to sit on the eggs. Not all hens that go broody are good mothers. It could be that she's hearing them start to peep and does NOT want them. You may have to pull them all. Keep an eye on the situation.

 

[cajun41887]

Yes, verified by candling. What do I do about the humidity since my chicken eggs and duck eggs are at different stages of development and have different requirements? ‍‍