Muscovy Incubating Advice, please!

[nataliewt]

I need help getting my incubator set up. Here is the back story:

I have two white Muscovy ducks and one white drake. In order to get a little color in my flock I bought some eggs on Ebay from a mixed color flock and am also getting some eggs (relatively) locally from someone who has all chocolates. One of my ducks has been sitting on a nest of 20 of her own (or her sister duck's eggs) for ~two weeks. The other duck had about 7 of her own eggs and then I added 6 of the shipped eggs (I won an auction for 6+ eggs and got 15 in the mail!). I was thinking that I would have a few more days before she went broody and I was going to add a few from the other breeder which I am just picking up this afternoon. Well, the very next day after I added the 6 eggs she was setting. So here I am with 9 + 12 outside eggs and no hen to set them under. (Since my second girl had kind of a hard time getting her nest set up - I don't really feel like messing with it now.) All that is to say that I am going to stick them in the incubator unless someone thinks it would be better to mess with the nests that are already going. I have an old metal brower still air incubator. I just hatched some chickens and while it wasn't a great hatch I do have 8 babies so it is relatively functional.

I don't feel really great about getting these Muscovy eggs to hatch in the incubator since I've heard they are hard, but I will give it my best shot! So I have it set up with a water wiggler as an approximation of an internal egg temp. It is currently running at around 37.5 as I had it for my chicken eggs. The air temp at egg height is somewhat hotter and also fluctuates more due to the whole wafer thermostat still air thing. Since the duck eggs are bigger, they are closer to the heating element and therefore will be hotter (I'm guessing) at the top of the egg even with the same water wiggler temp. Do you think? Does anyone have experience with this? Do you use the water wiggler temp for duck eggs too?

I've currently got the humidity around 65% What do you all recommend?

Also, what is the general consensus on misting the eggs?

Do you have any other advice? I hope to get at least a few babies from these outside eggs to bring some diversity to my flock! I don't want to ruin their chances with my incompetence!


Thanks for any and all advice that you can offer.

Natalie

 

[duckyfromoz]

In the absence of a more experienced Muscovy hatcher so far today - I can offer some general duck egg advise I have only incubated one muscovy egg which was given to me in a surprise dozen eggs- But I treated it like all my other eggs. Placed all egg laying down for hand turning 2-3 times a day. Misted with water every second day from day 7- 24 ( longer for the muscovy egg ) Increase humidity at lockdown which starts on day 35 for muscovy eggs.

Messing with the nests of those already siting would result in different hatch due dates- so it may be better to try incubating them yourself. However some people do say they have more luck with muscovy egg when they are started under a broody for the first week them placed into the incubator.

Hope all goes well for the eggs-

 

[bemba]

I would take the eggs from your ducks and put them in the bator and replace them with the coloured eggs, I have found that if the eggs have a least a week under mum then put in a bator your most critical stage of development is done, and you get a better hatch ( don't know if anyone else has had this but definately works for me) And I also take the eggs out of the bator for about half an hour every day after day 7 then mist just before putting back in the bator, and stop at lockdown. Good luck, pics please (when they hatch)

 

[nataliewt]

Thanks for your advice. I saw both of my ducks come off their nests for their nightly leg stretch, but I just couldn't do the switcheroo on their nests. Maybe next time when I have a little more experience under my belt! I was afraid I would kill ALL the babies that way! At least I know that my first duck to sit has a nicely constructed nest where all the eggs are being kept warm. She has kind of made a mound and it looks very organized. The other duck didn't have enough nesting material in her box (a plastic dog crate) so her eggs are kind of spread all over the place and whenever I look in there I can always see a few eggs poking out... Next time I will do a better job getting the boxes full since I understand the 3-D structure of the nests now!


So I've got my 12 chocolate eggs with one greenish surprise duck egg thrown in from the localish breeder. Then 10 of the mixed flock (black, chocolate, dark ripple, self blue or white) and one of my own white eggs in the incubator and the countdown begins. 35 days really is a long time! Fortunately I have a little mid-incubation distraction with a shipment of 25 chicks and 25 surprises (Hatcher Leftover Special) coming from Sandhill Preservation about half-way through!

Thanks everyone!

Natalie

 

[cqnguyen]

I just got some Muscovy fertile eggs...ahhhh...I'm so lost on what to do, and there is really nothing to reference to. I guess I'm just going to have to experiment. You're the first person that I know that wants to do what I'm going to do basically with a blindfold on my eyes....lol

I did some research and found this:

http://www.ehow.com/way_5809357_do-hatch-muscovy-duck-eggs_.html

The temperature should be set at 99.5 degrees. The relative humidity should be set at about 75 percent--this is a higher percentage than other duck eggs hatch at. <--What do you think? So should I set my incubator at this temp.

Here is a PDF of something:

http://ps.fass.org/cgi/reprint/80/2/219.pdf

If anyone can assist in this, then it would greatly help!

 

[cqnguyen]

Hi, (for anyone who wants to help)

I was planning on incubating some muscovy eggs soon, and was wondering what was the humidity you had during the start of incubation.

How many times did you spray it a day?

What day did you go into lockdown.

Thanks for any help.