- Oct 30, 2015
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In the past I've been having horrible, horrible luck with hatching muscovy eggs artificially in the incubator (yet having had no issues with chickens and quail--god, they're so easy). 37.6 degrees C, dry incubation (humidity fluctuates between 35% and 75% where I am), lockdown day 26 (they start internally pipping on day 29 for me so I make sure to stop turning them before that), at internal pip I drop the temperature down to 37.0. Despite everything, in each of my clutches of 6, only 1 would hatch (at this point I've set about 8 clutches of 6 so far all with similar results except this last one.) 1 or 2 will usually be infertile/blood ring so it's usually out of 4 or 5. Most of them would pip (either internally or externally) and just die in the shell with no further progress. I'd open them up, all the blood would be absorbed but the yolk un-absorbed. I didn't know why. I would make them safety holes but it made no difference.
I did something very different with this last clutch because the previous batch's sole survivor did really well with this method and I thought it couldn't hurt given the abysmal hatch rate I got all the previous times (they were continuously incubated with some other clutches and this one was my last one in this particular incubator). This time I got 4 ducklings out of 5 viable eggs (1 pipped on the wrong end with yellow... water in it and most likely aspirated/drowned, possibly due to the week of extreme rain we've been having. I tried to help it but I think it had already breathed in too much of the water since it was gushing water out of its nostrils with every breath) but the other 4 came out perfectly when they were ready.
I thought this might help someone who has had an issue with muscovy hatching eggs the way I did. I don't actually know why this helps. It could be a fluke. I'll be trying another few clutches when my hens start laying again (they're brooding their own right now.)
What I did was once they start internally pipping, I opened up the big end (not completely, just enough for me to work in there), rubbed the membrane with coconut oil so it didn't dry out, make sure their nostrils were clear on any membrane or gunk, then placed each of them in a piece of grocery plastic bags--I cut a piece and wrap them up in it and loosely taped them shut, then poke small holes in it where I opened up the egg. I took them out once a day to unstick any membrane by placing some coconut oil under the membrane (I had one "sticky" duckling that I used a few small pieces of paper towel soaked in coconut oil as a barrier between its feathers and the membrane). Then place them back into their bag and back into the incubator. The third day after they internally pipped, they all hatched the rest of the way themselves. Came home to two of them who made it free of the bags, one of them that was sitting in the bag with the egg, and one of them halfway out of the egg (so I just helped it the rest of the way.)
I think it might be that humidity stability, more than what the humidity actually is (it was 45% in the incubator when I started), is extremely important as well as getting enough oxygen. I also wonder if my layer's feed makes the eggs thicker and more difficult to break through, and giving them an opening gives them a way out when they're ready. I think the bags completely stabilized the humidity in the egg in a way that was pleasing to them. Could it also be during the time I'm working on them allowing them to cool a bit? I don't know, but it did solve my question that it wasn't the incubation period that was going wrong it was the hatching (because I had other clutches in this same incubator running a few days earlier than this one that had most die in shell).
Anyway, I guess this would be helpful for people who have had ducklings consistently die in shell during hatch like I did. I hope this helps someone because I was near tears trying to figure out what was going wrong and I couldn't figure it out even though I've been reading those articles about how to hatch muscovies. If someone who feels like they have nothing else to lose tries this and it works, could you let me know? I hope to try this again soon.
Duckling tax included.
I did something very different with this last clutch because the previous batch's sole survivor did really well with this method and I thought it couldn't hurt given the abysmal hatch rate I got all the previous times (they were continuously incubated with some other clutches and this one was my last one in this particular incubator). This time I got 4 ducklings out of 5 viable eggs (1 pipped on the wrong end with yellow... water in it and most likely aspirated/drowned, possibly due to the week of extreme rain we've been having. I tried to help it but I think it had already breathed in too much of the water since it was gushing water out of its nostrils with every breath) but the other 4 came out perfectly when they were ready.
I thought this might help someone who has had an issue with muscovy hatching eggs the way I did. I don't actually know why this helps. It could be a fluke. I'll be trying another few clutches when my hens start laying again (they're brooding their own right now.)
What I did was once they start internally pipping, I opened up the big end (not completely, just enough for me to work in there), rubbed the membrane with coconut oil so it didn't dry out, make sure their nostrils were clear on any membrane or gunk, then placed each of them in a piece of grocery plastic bags--I cut a piece and wrap them up in it and loosely taped them shut, then poke small holes in it where I opened up the egg. I took them out once a day to unstick any membrane by placing some coconut oil under the membrane (I had one "sticky" duckling that I used a few small pieces of paper towel soaked in coconut oil as a barrier between its feathers and the membrane). Then place them back into their bag and back into the incubator. The third day after they internally pipped, they all hatched the rest of the way themselves. Came home to two of them who made it free of the bags, one of them that was sitting in the bag with the egg, and one of them halfway out of the egg (so I just helped it the rest of the way.)
I think it might be that humidity stability, more than what the humidity actually is (it was 45% in the incubator when I started), is extremely important as well as getting enough oxygen. I also wonder if my layer's feed makes the eggs thicker and more difficult to break through, and giving them an opening gives them a way out when they're ready. I think the bags completely stabilized the humidity in the egg in a way that was pleasing to them. Could it also be during the time I'm working on them allowing them to cool a bit? I don't know, but it did solve my question that it wasn't the incubation period that was going wrong it was the hatching (because I had other clutches in this same incubator running a few days earlier than this one that had most die in shell).
Anyway, I guess this would be helpful for people who have had ducklings consistently die in shell during hatch like I did. I hope this helps someone because I was near tears trying to figure out what was going wrong and I couldn't figure it out even though I've been reading those articles about how to hatch muscovies. If someone who feels like they have nothing else to lose tries this and it works, could you let me know? I hope to try this again soon.
Duckling tax included.
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