Muscovy laying, how should I hatch?

[merlg]

I have one Muscovy that started to lay 9 days ago. I've been collecting the eggs and bringing them in before they freeze. I have about 8 eggs. They are just sitting at room temp.

It's cold here in WI. Outside it's well below freezing, but the coop has been fluctuating above and below freezing since it's somewhat insulated.

How do I get her to sit on the eggs once I've collected enough? Just lay them all down in a nest with a heat pad until she lays on them then remove the pad? Is it just too early in the season?

 

[Miss Lydia]

I have one Muscovy that started to lay 9 days ago. I've been collecting the eggs and bringing them in before they freeze. I have about 8 eggs. They are just sitting at room temp.

It's cold here in WI. Outside it's well below freezing, but the coop has been fluctuating above and below freezing since it's somewhat insulated.

How do I get her to sit on the eggs once I've collected enough? Just lay them all down in a nest with a heat pad until she lays on them then remove the pad? Is it just too early in the season?

Too early she'll keep laying way up into fall so nothing you can do except when the weather starts getting warmer late March -April start leaving the eggs in the nest she'll most likely decide as soon as the notion hits her and you won't be able to stop her even if you wanted too, I have a broody Muscovy right now and she isn't even on eggs.

It's internal. It's always best just to let them make all the decisions unless you don't want any ducklings then just take all the eggs and she'll give up eventually. I don't think you have a worry in the world about her not going broody though.

 

[merlg]

Quote:
My experience with these ducks is that they lay 15-20 eggs 6 times a week then stop for a few weeks, then start back up. Is this not the case with your muscovys?

 

[Miss Lydia]

My experience with these ducks is that they lay 15-20 eggs 6 times a week then stop for a few weeks, then start back up. Is this not the case with your muscovys?

Oh yes but mine lay up into fall so taking eggs away now only means she'll continue to lay and eventually she'll go broody. And mine do take breaks also, actually some started laying first of Feb. and laid for a couple weeks but have quit, and haven't started back yet. I notice once mating begins eggs are usually not far behind.

 

[barredmuscovy]

I have already hatched 19 ducklings this year and the seem to love the cold it is 23 outside and are still with there there mother they are very hardy

 

[BlackChicken]

This is our first year with muscovies but we had the same situation going on @merlg. Our muscovy started laying in January and if we left the eggs in the nest they would freeze, so our only option was to collect the eggs because we knew she wouldn't sit on them until she was done laying. After talking to a few people and reading things online, we thought it might be best to wait for her next set of eggs bc apparently raising ducklings in very cold weather can be a lot of work but we also heard that taking her eggs could cause her to stop laying or hide her nest, which we didn't want. We decided to put a few golf balls in her nest and hope that it would deter her from moving the nest/stop laying and we continued to collect the eggs. She ended up laying 30 eggs (and we saved many of them) and then became broody and sat on the golf balls! We thought that the weather at the end of march/April wouldn't be too cold for the ducklings, so we switched out the golf balls with 16 of her newest eggs (when she was taking her mid-day break) and she has been sitting on the eggs for about a week! I'm not sure how everything will turn out at the end of the 35ish days but that's one possible solution so the eggs don't freeze and still have a broody duck. Our temps aren't "well below freezing" however. At the end of laying/start of sitting they were around 60 during the day but have just dropped back down to 20s-30s. I'm not sure if the warm temperatures had any influence but she's still sitting on them in the cold.