Last year’s spring and summer hatches of ducklings are now laying their own eggs, enthusiastically. With Spring upon us, it’s time to hatch some of those eggs. Chicken eggs, generally speaking, are very easy to hatch; Muscovy eggs require more maintenance and monitoring, but are worth the effort.

While it’s tempting to candle the eggs earlier, we begin candling to check Muscovy egg development at day 10. At this point, the viability of the egg can be determined with reasonable confidence: you should see the network of blood vessels and the embryo, and the embryo will probably react to the light by moving around. Any obvious “clears” – infertile or non-developing – are removed now, as are any where development has stopped (like a blood ring). It’s early enough in incubation that bad eggs shouldn’t have reached the point of exploding, but far enough along to allow you to see real development. Candling is fun and nerve-wracking at the same time: it’s easy to fumble an egg and even drop it as you’re trying to candle – and a dropped egg is most likely going to mean the end for that developing embryo. So far, we haven’t dropped any eggs, but the risk is ever-present. Continue reading “The Incubator’s Fired Up: Spring Ducklings Will Be Here Soon!” →