Oh Baby! (2017 Muscovy Duck Hatch-a-long)
Muscovies have a reputation for being difficult to incubate and hatch, but because the eggs I have are fertile (thanks to my very enthusiastic male), I decided to try my hand at them. It takes on average 35-37 days for them to hatch.
A few years ago, I had bought a Magicfly 12 egg incubator with auto-egg turner, which can only fit 6 muscovy eggs due to the size of them (unless you want to turn by hand, in which case it could most likely fit more) but my first attempt had been dud eggs and it sat unused in my closet ever since. I hated the way the incubator smelled–for some reason all incubators have this special scent that turns my stomach, so I never tried it again partially for that very reason. But I got over it and placed it in a more ventilated area on my kitchen counter (as opposed to my bathroom.)
Once I ascertained this batch’s fertility by cracking open an egg and locating the “bullseye” (the normal white dot you see on the egg should be surrounded by another white ring–indicating that this egg had been fertilized), I set them in the incubator at 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit (37.5 degrees Celsius on this incubator brand) and placed them in the auto-egg turner. The reason the eggs need to be turned is so that the duckling doesn’t develop stuck to one side of the egg and can absorb everything evenly. I placed another thermometer/hydrometer combo into the incubator to get an extra reading (especially for humidity because the incubator does not have a hydrometer built in) and a medicine cap, the kind you get with Nyquil, full of water. This held the humidity at around 40-60%.
I began candling them at day 5 when the veins started developing and at day 10, tossed the ones that failed to develop any veins (opened them up and found they were infertile.)
During the last two weeks, I began spritzing them with water every day to simulate the mother duck who would bath herself and sit back on the eggs. This spiked the humidity which concerned me a bit (since high humidity can cause a gooey substance on them that can kill them) so I kept an eye on it.
This is where the fun starts and I will document this the way I documented both my children’s labor stories (not everything has time stamps though).
Day 31 (July 4th, 2017)
Happy independence day!
Got up this morning and did my chores (let the ducks out, water the ducks, collect raspberries, blueberries, and beans that have just started to ripen) and finally decided to candle the eggs to check on the progress.
To my panic and amazement, almost overnight, two of the air cells were drawn down where they need to be (I had been worrying about the fact that the air cells did not look like they were increasing in size) which means that the ducklings have begun absorbing the albumen in earnest. The two other ones still have their albumen visible when I candle. One of the ducklings seem to be attempting to break into the air cell (called internally pipping), if the beak pushing excitedly at the membrane, looking for all the world like a trampoline bottom, is any indication.
Showed my daughter and she was super excited.
I had planned to lock down tomorrow at day 32. Lockdown usually occurs 3 days before the hatch date, in which you take them out of the autoturner, decrease the temperature to 98.5-99 degrees Fahrenheit, up the humidity to 60%+ in order to prepare for hatch, and leave them alone until they finish hatching. Some quick Googling showed some people do it on day 31 so I’m not too far off.
Decide to lockdown anyway. Move the eggs to the bottom tray, remove the top tray and the auto egg turner, decreased the temperature to 37.2 (about 99 degrees Fahrenheit) and checked on the humidity. Hydrometer has it holding at 60%, most likely due to the fact that where I am, it’s pretty humid from living close to the water on the south shore of Long Island. I decide not to put in a wet towel for fear the humidity might be too high.
I will be turning the other eggs that have not yet absorbed all the albumen yet until they do, as turning them often helps absorption.
I do an inventory check to make sure I have the heat lamp and the brooder and enough wood shavings for when they hatch (if they hatch–I’m getting ahead of myself here because muscovy eggs often die during the hatch process.)
I’m also reading that muscovy duck eggs have better luck if they are hatched with mallard derivatives since they have an easier time and their peeping is encouraging. I might set my ipod to play duck peeps in order to simulate it when they begin fully internally pipping.
Oh boy. Am I going to get any sleep this week?
9:09pm – I belong to several poultry forums so I shot some questions over to them just to double check and they all recommended I lock them down. I guess this is really it!
Day 32 (July 5th, 2017)
Only one out of all four (the first one that had drawn down the air cell) is showing signs of movement. It’s quite strong, but my paranoia makes me think the other three are dead because the other two still have not absorbed the albumen, and they’re not, as far as I can see, moving in the shell.
This presents a bit of a problem because ducklings need companionship for warmth and social reasons, or they can fail to thrive. Hopefully I have more than just one hatch, but thankfully it’s summer, so I can have the duckling out with the other ducks much faster than if it was winter since it’s warm enough for them.
I guess we’ll see in a couple hours if the rest are inclined to show any development.
12:25pm – The one I am sure is alive has internally pipped, meaning it has broken through the membrane into the air cell and has taken it’s first breath of gaseous air. It should externally pip in the next day or so, and then zip (cutting around the egg so it can pop out) a day after that!
I will be keeping a close eye on it and help if necessary.
9:25pm – I’m just freaking out paranoid. Muscovy ducks have such a terrible reputation for dying close to hatch, and I feel like part of it has to do with how gosh darn thick the shell is compared with chicken eggs. Part of me is considering just letting one of the ducks go broody and hatch a batch themselves (but obviously I’d have to forego breakfast for a few days…)
This is worse than labor because at least when I was in labor, I could feel what was going on! I’m actually hoping that it does the majority of what it’s gotta do middle of the night to spare me this torture. Especially since I don’t see any rocking or hear any chirping (even though it is moving around a bit in there).
I’ve made a promise to leave it alone since the more you handle the eggs, the higher the possibility that the ducklings could get turned around in there and pip the wrong way (should always be air cell first.)
Day 33 (July 6, 2017)
Candled this morning and saw a little head in the air sac! Humidity is holding steady–there is slight condensation below the bottom tray but the hydrometer says it’s holding at 70%, so I’ll leave that alone.
The other ones still have not shown any signs of drawing the air cell down. I wonder if this is going to be the only one hatching this time (if it hatches at all)? If so, I’m curious as to what had gone wrong with the other ones. I guess be on the lookout for a necropsy post (warnings will be posted) after the hatch date.
6:40pm – Went to check on the eggs and the humidity (which is slightly high at 75%) to see if the other ones made any progress–heard CHIRPING from the one egg that had definitive movement. As I was moving it to the side, I felt something like a sharp thing poking in my hand and I turned it over and it had externally pipped!
ON DAY 33.
WHAT DO I DO?!?!?!
OH GOD I AM ABOUT TO BE THE MOTHER OF A SPANKIN’ NEW BABY DUCKLING.
One problem is that it has externally pipped below the air cell line–not on the wrong side, but not completely right either. I contacted my friends on the forum to see if it’s as big of a problem as MY PANICKING MIND is thinking it to be.
Originally we were going to go to the Greek festival near our house. Now, I might not budge from my position all night.
I’ve been peeping at it to encourage it.
GO LITTLE ONE, GO!
7:13pm – I thought I should at least give some information about this hatching process while I’m here doing nothing but shrieking in the privacy of my own head.
The reason why I’m not just taking a mallet to the egg and getting the thing out right now is because during this process in which it first began to breathe air (when it internally pipped), it’s drawing all the blood (remember when I first candled them?) from the blood vessels into its body, as well as bringing the yolk up into its stomach (which will close around it), so to open it up and try to get it out right now is akin to a death sentence by hemorrhage and infection.
It should only come out once it does all of that.
Also, it looks like my humidity was PERFECT throughout the incubating process because there is none of the dreaded yellow goo that would cake into an amber like substance that suffocates the duckling to death (they need to be able to expand their ribcage while breathing.)
Alas, Adam is home and is dragging me to the Greek festival because he knows I will lose my ever loving mind if I just stay at home here. Might update in a few hours. Going to set up the brooder when I get back. By the way, I’m using a large plastic container with wood shavings as the brooder. Plastic because I’m paranoid about the heat lamp and possibly burning my house down if I use anything else, but people can use whatever container they would like.
Day 34 (July 7, 2017)
9:14am – Happy Tanabata festival everyone! (Asian Valentine’s Day/Qixi Festival)
It’s raining so it looks like the constellations Vega and Altair will not be able to meet this year. However, that means it’s relatively humid which would help keep humidity up in the incubator.
When we got home last night, there was no progress but I stayed up until 12am (which is like, super late for me after two kids) just looking and worrying about it. Still peeping. Hasn’t zipped.
Just now, I candled it and could see the beak (and the egg tooth) and it pecks at the shell every so often. However, I still see some blood vessels in the membrane so it’s not ready to come out yet. I will check in another 6 hours.
Hoping it comes out today! I’ll name it one of the constellations if it does. It will literally be my only named duck. Hoping it’s a girl so I could keep it–would be awesome to be able to keep my first hatch.
I did dab a bit of coconut oil on the membrane to keep it moist.
8:20pm – I came home to find that it had attempted to zip, but for whatever reason had stopped and only got another pip through. Candling it made sure that the blood vessels had been absorbed, I decided to help it along.
It was peeping and straining against the shell, so I cracked the shell off little by little, then began to peel back the membrane, fully prepared to stop in the event that it didn’t finish absorbing.
The little stinker, once the neck and head was free (it was odd, trapped under a leg), burst out of the shell like a crazy prize popper (I freaked out thinking if it didn’t finish detaching the umbilical cord that it was going to die, but turns out it had finished everything and even pooped inside the shell.)
I am so excited for Sophie to get home and see our new baby duckling!
I will give the other eggs until day 38 to hatch, if not, it’s autopsy time.
See you in the Duckling Care page!
Epilogue: Day 35
I opened up the other eggs and they were dead. One of them, the one that had drawn the air cell down, had its head trapped in a weird position as well so it couldn’t pip into the air cell.
The others were perfect but… gooey. I think my humidity had some spikes I was unaware of (since I live so close to water). I will be dry incubating the next time around (starting in a few days, just have to wait for my females to pop out the last few fertile eggs since I had sold the male and my blue male is not old enough to mate them yet.)
