Need help with first-time incubation

RavenStorm

Songster
11 Years
Jun 1, 2008
361
6
129
Southern CA
I'm getting ready to try to incubate some Muscovy eggs, and I've never incubated anything before. My muskies reached sexual maturity in October, and I've been seeing bulls-eyes for a month now so I want to set a small batch and see. I just picked up a used Lyon TX-7 that I'm checking right now, but I have a question about the eggs themselves.

I know the chick hatchers all have their own opinion about preping the eggs. To wash or not to wash? To sanitize or to leave dirty? I want to get the input for duck eggs for you guys. The eggs I want to put in are really dirty. We had some rain and the nest boxes for muddy and poop-y and the ick dried onto the eggs. There is no way I can "gently" brush the mess off; it's going to have to be washed thoroughly if it needs to come off. Any advice?
 
I have only set muscovy eggs once- so dont have multiple settings to make comparisons- But as with all duck eggs, I set them lying down on their sides rather than upright in a turning.

I assume you know about the temp and humidity- and the 35 day length of incubation- and stop turning and increase humidity at day 32. As far as the dirty eggs go- If I ever want to set an egg from a specific duck that is dirty- rather than discard it and wait for more- I use a very fine sandpaper to remove as much of the mud as i can. I then slighly dampen a cloth- and the egg ( room temp water so its not colder or warm than the egg ) and gently rub of the remaining dirt.

Best of luck with those eggs.
 

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