Muscovy nesting habits

[pnwfarmnovice]

My girl has a nest now, she just had a not very successful hatch of her nine and her sisters 5 (sister was eaten by a predator) we had only two survivors and lost one of those. She has a clutch of 23 as of yesterday and hasn't left nest today so I'm thinking she is done. Her lil duckling stays by here side and sits with her most of the day. I coax him/her out as often as possible for excerise ect. Duckling is just about 7 weeks.
My questions:
Is 23 a large clutch and is it normal to have her little one with her or should I discourage that? Doesn't seem to be any problems thus far.

 

[Louise Waffles]

I got my muscovies from a woman who had lost a mother and all but one of the ducklings to a fox or coyote. Another Muscovy hen was broody, and she put the duckling with her. It worked out fine, and I brought all the ducklings to live with me.
I don't know about a clutch of 23, it may be too many. I can't imagine any of my girls being able to set on that many eggs. Although 23 little fluffs running around DOES sound like pure joy.

 

[pnwfarmnovice]

Very good to hear about duckling getting along with the mama! Very encouraging as I do have a drake that's nice to him (it's his baby

) but they get locked up at night separately. It just felt right letting duckling stay with his mama. It sits next to mama..Abigale is her name and perhaps allowing duckling to nest with her will help her keep her eggs warm and incubating properly. I hope! I can't find any information about anyone else having 23 eggs all from one gal! I agree it seems like to many but what to do? She is building up her nest and I can only see one to three when she sits a certain direction, but she changes position often; which leads me to believe she is definitely aware and doing her best to keep em all warm We have a very secure nesting area she picked herself and I keep a warming lamp close by as temps are still getting a bit chilly in early AM. I imagine all won't survive but I can hope and help without to much interfering! I'll try to post a pic of her and duckling doing there nest thing! Wish duckling had siblings so I could guess it's sex! Hope the volunteer assistant nesting is a hint it's a female

 

[Louise Waffles]

I would not use a warming lamp for safety reasons. Maybe pull some of the eggs to make room for the duckling under her, and that will be enough heat.
I looked up how big a Muscovy clutch normally is, and it's 15-18 eggs. If she has to spend a lot of time repositioning them, 23 is probably too many for her. Muscovies are kind of crazy when they're broody. I have a broody muscovy on chicken eggs, and she's herding everyone into her nest so she can have more.
Good luck with your hatch!

 

[pnwfarmnovice]

Its been a bit but I let her decide when and what to keep; actual egg count ended up being 24. I am just to new to be comfortable interfering to much. She did great, three she kicked out and two didnt survive long after hatch. They were very weak and last two hatch after about 36 hours from first hatchlings appearance. Since she was very good at covering her eggs and her only living from an earlier nest was her welcome nest mate (turns out he is a drake ??!!) I left them all. She also moved them quite a bit and was able to cover all fairly well.
I did opt for a safer heat source, thank you for the warning and making me think!! I had a DUH moment haha!!
I'm a horrible picture taker but here is a couple of the happy family and one of my beautiful drake daddy, I may be biased...