The Muscovy eggs ordered last week were shipped by the seller on Monday by Priority Mail. Unfortunately, they were mysteriously delayed in transit and didn’t arrive at the local post office (and strangely, went to a different PO, rather than the one to which we’re assigned) until today. We’ve been watching the tracking carefully, so as soon as we saw that they had arrived at the local PO, we called and asked them to hold the package for pickup.
The package was in good shape, and the eggs were carefully wrapped, individually, first in paper towel, then bubble wrap, and placed in a box, which was placed in a bigger box and surrounded by paper to cushion the eggs. The eggs appear to all be unbroken.
What’s not clear at this point, though, is whether the eggs were “scrambled” in transit (shaken to the point of damage), subjected to killing temperatures, or x-rayed. In addition, major air pressure changes could adversely impact the air sacs, and changes in temperature could have caused the eggs to “sweat”, allowing bacteria inside. Any or all of these conditions could prevent fertile eggs from developing into embryos. There are many risks in having eggs shipped, but reasons like the ability to get eggs from diverse bloodlines still makes buying shipped eggs attractive.
For now, the 7 duck eggs will rest on the counter, big end up, for the day. Tonight, we’ll candle the eggs to see if there’s visible damage inside or cracks that weren’t visible in the daylight. If we’re very lucky, at least some of the shipped eggs will develop and hatch into chocolate Muscovy ducklings, which will join our existing group of 5. The ducks that laid these eggs look very similar to the ones on our farm, so we’re really hoping at least some of them hatch successfully.
We’re also hoping that as the weather improves, we’ll see some of our own eggs become fertile and we’ll be able to incubate them…or better yet, one of the ducks will hatch them, herself. What a wonderful sight it would be to see a duck with her ducklings in tow!
Updates on the eggs to come. Please think positive thoughts about these guys hatching in 35 days!