Muscovy Murdering Mamas!!!! I need to move eggs to the hatcher.

[bootsandbeaks]

One premature, dead duckling seems like a fluke. A second full term dead duckling seems like something is wrong. I have two Muscovy ducks who have been swapping eggs and sharing their nests. Last night, one took several eggs that looked close to hatching. This morning she only has one egg so I am assuming the others were swaped back. But I found a second dead duckling. I don't know what's going on, but I think I'm going to look for those eggs that looked close and move them to the hatcher. I have a GQF cabinet hatcher. I normally have it at 100 and 68% humidity for chicken eggs. I haven't tried duck eggs and I know Muscovy ducks are a little different than Mallard ducks. Does anyone know what the temp and humidity should be?

 

[wynn4578]

I've never hatched Muscovy but what I would do is set my temp at 98.5 to 99 and run my humidity at around 70%. I'll see if I can find a guide for muscovy's but the ducks did the hard part. It will be better if your humidity is a little high than a little low. Many people think hugh humidity at hatch causes the chick to drown but actually high humidity during incubation causes drowning at hatch (not enough water transfer from the egg). The lower temps in any bird helps keep them from wearing down so easily while working to hatch.

 

[wynn4578]

http://animalsciencey.ucdavis.edu/avian/muscovy1001.htm

 

[bootsandbeaks]

Thank you!!!! I was able to pull 5 eggs from the nest before the girls started shredding the hooded sweatshirt that I had put on for protection. It must have been quite a sight. I had one mama attached to the top of my head and another clinging to my chest in an angry barrage a beaks, claws and flapping wings. Those mamas were serious!!!!! Of the five eggs I pulled, three were definitely rotten, one looked pretty good and the fifth was questionable. I put those two in the hatcher at 98.5 degrees and 65% humidity. I'm thinking I should pull the rest of the eggs, but I'm not sure.... That definitely stressed the girls out!!!!

 

[wynn4578]

Muscovys are resilient I would take the rest of the eggs. Worst case you break them from the nest which needs to happen anyway if you take all the eggs. Setting eggs is hard work and the sooner they stop the sooner they can recover.