Whoo hoo, I hear Muscovy eggs peeping **Got 6 total**

[jlbpooh]

I put 11 Muscovy eggs in my incubator on November 28th. 1 died sometime after the 7th day, one more died sometime after the 25th day. I candled them at 25 days only because I thought I possibly had some Khaki Campbell eggs too, but I didn't. My temp has been VERY consistent, but my humidity has consistently only been 68-70% through this whole process, although it has never dropped below that. I have tried my darndest to get the humidity above that with adding 4 saturated folded paper towels about 3x3 square, all the troughs are full, and a wide mouth glass of water that is too deep for them to get into when they hatch, but nothing I have added will budge the humidity, no matter how much I add. They are due hatch tomorrow if all goes well. It will be day 35. We started hearing faint peeping today, so that is a good sign. Does anyone have an idea on raising humidity more yet? I realize it is probably too late since they are already on lockdown.

ETA: changed date that I set them, my hubby's calendar on his phone was strange and the weeks start with Monday instead of Sunday so I wrote the wrong date initially.

 

[duckyfromoz]

What type of incubator are you using? It may help people to respond to your question as different incubators work slightly differently, and they may have found something specific that works better in the type you have.

 

[jlbpooh]

I have a little giant still air. I have never had to worry about getting the humidity high enough with chicken eggs, so I didn't realize there would be a problem getting it up past what I needed for them. I have an indoor outdoor weather station that measures humidity and temp, and you can see what the highest and lowest was for that day for each. I have the "outdoor" unit in the incubator on a little stand so that the sensor stays the same height as the top of the eggs. I have always had great luck with it for my chicken eggs except for last spring when I started a batch too late and the house was flipping between heat and air conditioning every day. Basically the only eggs that didn't hatch out of all those batches were clear so they probably weren't fertile.

These duck eggs were left outside in my duck house and were exposed to freezing temps for a few nights. It was a spur of the moment thing to put them in the incubator since someone asked if I had babies, and my hubby said no, but we could hatch some. They are still peeping well, but haven't pipped yet. I am hoping they they will start to today.

Thanks in advanced for any ideas.

Oh yes, I do have the vent plugs closed too.

 

[duckyfromoz]

The vent plugs was what I was thinking after reading what incubator you use. I use a hovabator for hatching and usually just fill the second trough close the vent- and I easily get 80 %. Once they start hatching I have to remove the plug as the window gets too much condensation to see what is going on in there.

I once ran out of the liner I use in the bator- and put in a thin dish cloth instead. I had a lot of issues that time with humidity as the cloth was retaining the moisture drawing it out of the air. Apart from eggs, water and the wet paper towels - do you have anything else in there in the way of a lining to help keep the bator cleaner?

 

[txcarl1258]

Have you tried using a sea sponge from the store? They are very porous and give a lot of surface area that will increase the humidity. I would also remove the vent plugs as they are going to need the extra fresh air when hatching.

 

[jlbpooh]

I do have shelf liner stuff in there to keep it clean. I also have a couple of bottles bottled water in there. I have found in the past that those help keep the temps stabilized when opening and closing the incubator when I would turn the eggs. My temps only drop about a degree then when turning eggs and adding water, not bad. I added that shelf liner stuff when I candled at day 25, and it didn't affect the humidity at all thankfully. I was worried it would restrict airflow to the troughs. I have rewetted the paper towels twice day with clean filtered water all along until lockdown started. I have one pipping and two rocking as a type this. I guess I am going to just have to "wing-it" and see what happens now. Of course most will either decide to hatch tonight while I am sleeping or possibly tomorrow while I am at work knowing my luck, times when I won't be able to monitor how they are doing. I am worried about the shrink wrap thing going on once they start pipping more. My hubby has been talking to them and looking in with flashlight for the last day now, he is really excited although they are due to be sold anyway. This was a last minute custom hatch for someone. I do have a momma muscovy that went broody on her first clutch a few days before Christmas, so I may have more in 3 1/2 more weeks too. These last 5 weeks have been torture, I thought 3 weeks was enough torture for chicken eggs, sheesh.

I normally do use sponges instead of paper towels, but I keep forgetting to get some. I have to go to the store later, I may pick some up. I am just afraid to open it and shake stuff up (the figure of speech kind) since they are pipping and rocking already.

 

[jlbpooh]

My temperature has been stable from day 1. Now that they are supposed to be hatching today, it decided to be 65 outside which made our house warm up by 4 degrees. The house was a constant 70 degrees until today. My incubator rose to 102.5 while I was at the grocery store. It was 101.4 when I left. It briefly got up to 103.3 until I cooled it off a little without letting any humidity out. I saw two eggs wiggling, but I still only have one pip and today is day 35 for these buggers. After everything being perfect for this whole time, I am upset that today is going so roughly. Do you think they will still be OK? I would hate to have them die now. I am starting to freak here.

 

[valley ranch]

I think muscovy eggs take 34-36 days. There are others on this forum who have hatched them I'm sure they will come on soon.

Richard

 

[jlbpooh]

We have 3 that have arrived and 4 more are rocking and pipped, Yay!

 

[DMSrabbit]

Congrats!!

That is very cool.. There is peeping upstairs in my house too!! im gonna go watch and wait