Today we're talking about how Muscovy ducks hatch out their eggs and what you have to do as a duck
owner. Hi guys I'm Elissa at Moat Cottage Homesteading, we're a small space, backyard
homestead. As a duck owner you have to provide a safe location for your ducks so that they're
not going to be taken by predators, the same with their eggs and any babies that hatch out. You need
to provide a clean living environment so that your ducks aren't walking around in poop, therefore
walking it into their nesting area and onto their eggs with their big dirty feet, if you have access
to straw or wood chips then you can spread it out all over the ground, then you can create a
deep litter flooring system and this is a great solution for keeping your poultry coop clean,
you want a safe clean location for your ducks to lay hatch out and raise their babies. If eggs are
dirty with poop and mud then this can increase the bacteria getting into the eggs through the shell
and this will decrease your hatch rate, now that doesn't mean you go and wash your eggs if they're
dirty because they have a protective layer around the outside and if you wash it off then you have
more chance of the bacteria getting in for sure, if you do see a really mucky egg then you might
want to remove it from the nest but this is before the Mumma starts sitting on the eggs full time,
after that just leave them, let the mum we'll work out what she's doing and which eggs she wants to
nest on, if you provide a clean living environment for your birds then this shouldn't be a problem.
You're going to need a viable Drake in your flock so that he can get down to business and fertilize
the eggs. Now a duck will still sit on eggs, even if they're not fertile, but they're not going
to grow babies they're just going to get really rotten so you need to have a viable Drake. Your
duck will choose a location where she wants to lay her eggs and then she'll start to prepare the nest
she does this by making an indentation where she wants the nest so whether it's in the soil
the grass, whether it's in the wood chips or the sawdust that you've organized for her,
she will make this indentation and then she'll pull out some down feathers to
line the nest with the down feathers so it's nice and soft and well insulated,
some Ducks use these feathers to cover their eggs and hide them but not all Ducks do this.
She usually lays an egg in her nest every day, sometimes they miss a day but generally it's
every day until she has enough eggs and you just have to leave the eggs there undisturbed,
so while these eggs are waiting for all the eggs to be laid nothing's happening,
they're just normal eggs, she'll decide when she's got enough eggs and she wants to sit
on them full time, so be patient sometimes they can be up to 20 eggs but generally I find about
ten to twelve eggs is a good number that the Mum likes to sit on, so when she decides she's ready
she'll quietly sit on her eggs, no noise no fuss just quietly sitting there nice and still and
then when she starts sitting on them full time that's when incubation starts so that's when
the 35 days starts and Write that date down so you know when to expect them to hatch,
so leave her there undisturbed for 35 days so that she can just hatch out her eggs in peace. Of
course if you're a backyard duck owner there used to you being around so you can check on them and
just peek in and see if she's okay, she'll usually come off her nest for a period of time every day
and you can tell when a broody hen is off the nest because she comes out and she's all puffy,
her feathers are all puffed up and she makes a fair bit of noise, which is not normal for
Muscovy ducks they're fairly quiet Birds so you know when a Muscovy ducks off her nest
because she's quite cranky and she takes it out on anyone who listen so everybody knows about it
She'll come off and she'll do a great big stinky poop that she's saved up because
they don't poop in the nest which is good for the eggs because obviously
you don't want poop in the nest. She'll have a drink of water and a
feed and quite often she might even take a bath as well, they love their baths.
A broody duck can come off the nest at any time of day whatever suits her and it's not necessarily
when you're feeding the Ducks, so what I do is I have a container especially for the broody ducks
when they come out and it's got grain in it and it's covered in water so the Ducks have to put
their beaks in they know it's there and they can pull the grain out whenever it suits them and that
means the mice and the wild birds can't get the grain and Muscovy ducks prefer to eat greens,
bugs and all sorts of things that they can find in the garden. They'd rather that than grain anyway,
so if they've already had enough grain they're not going to over feed, they're not like that,
so leaving extra out for a broody hen is quite easy to do and if I'm putting duck feed into
the water it's obviously only grain I don't do this with layer pellets or anything that's
going to go mushy and disgusting, I only do this with whole grains and if there's no food left for
her she will come and get you, obviously I've got backyard Muscovy ducks so they know where
they can come to find me and they do, they make a lot of noise and say "hey I'm off my nest now,
I'm announcing it to everyone in the whole neighborhood and you better come and feed
me" so you'll hear her if you're in the house and they're around your house you'll hear them when
they're coming off the nest. If her nest is in an area where other ducks can get to it, what I do in
the early days when she comes off her nest is I mark the eggs with a bit of black texta that way
I know which ones are her eggs that she is going to be sitting on for the 35 days and if any extra
eggs appear in that time along the journey I know that they're not the ones that should be there,
sometimes I will check the nest and make sure there's no extra eggs there because we don't need
half-developed birds in eggs. When the eggs are under a broody bird I don't bother candling the
eggs I just leave them, there's no point, let the Mum do what the Mum does. If I was incubating the
eggs in an incubator then I would definitely be candling the eggs but under a broody bird I just
let them do their thing. Where I live in Victoria Australia my ducks hatch out their eggs anywhere
from midwinter all the way through to the start of autumn but obviously this is going to depend where
in the world you are as to the seasons when your Ducks are going to be wanting to hatch out eggs.
My ducks generally don't start sitting in the autumn they're usually molting in the autumn,
so when the leaves are falling off the trees, the feathers start falling off the Ducks and
then they all have brand new coats ready for the Winter. On day 34 I go and check on mum,
I don't disturb her but I do have a listen and see if I can hear any little chicks under there
and sometimes I see a little face pop out because it gets so hot here usually they hatch a day early
or at least they start to hatch a day early. Now I don't disturb her, the mum will stay on the nest
for a couple of days after this usually as well and she'll come off when she's ready. You need
to make sure that the babies have access to water that they can reach and that they can get in and
out of without drowning because if they, if the water is too deep and they can't get out of it,
they'll get tired swimming in it all that time and they will drown so you need to make sure they have
access suitable for their size and the same goes for food they need to be able to reach their food
not be able to tip it over and that includes mum stepping in it and you need to make sure that the
babies aren't pooping in it because there's always those ducklings that like to get in their food and
make a big mess and you don't want them eating that because that would be really disgusting
I like to feed my ducklings and Mumma duck with a starter mix for ducklings and geese now I don't
use the one for chickens because it's too much medicated formula in that for the Ducks so I have
a special one especially for ducks, I also give them access to shell grit because that's how they
digest their food it helps them to break down any food that they find obviously the starter crumble
isn't going to be needing that but any other food that they happen to find. I also give them access
to coal because if they're not feeling well they will pick on the coal and that will help settle
their tummy, as well as access to greens because they love their fresh greens. If there's any eggs
left over, that haven't hatched when the Mumma comes off the nest, I carefully crack them open
to see what has happened whether they were fertile in the first place or whether the bird has died
along the way and whereabouts in the journey the bird did die because then that can tell you a lot
about what the problem was, so I always like to know what's going on and how many of my eggs were
fertilized and if any aren't making it through. Usually I have a fairly high success rate,
of course I do this outside because if it's an unfertile or it's been dead for a while,
it's gonna be a really stinky mess so you've got to be prepared for that if you're going to do that
and make sure you don't get it on yourself because it can stink for days. If you choose to breed your
ducks then you are responsible for their health and well-being you're also responsible for the
excess drakes that you're going to end up with because once you have a whole lot of teenage
Drake's that's going to cause a bit of trouble because they're going to be harassing all the
ladies whether they're chickens or ducks they're not that fussy and they're not very respectful of
the ladies I suppose because there's too many of them usually when you're hatching out and
you've got quite a few, if you've only got the two main Drake's or one Drake then there's no
competition and they're quite happy to share and do what they need to do but if there's a
whole lot of teenagers it gets a little bit crazy it's something you need to manage also
the drakes will start fighting with them and it gets out of control very quickly so you need to
make sure you can look after them properly and that means your whole flock as a whole and you
need to respectfully process those drakes or you can rehome them it's up to you how you
choose to manage your flock but you need to be aware of that that that is your responsibility,
letting them out into the wild is not an option because they can become a pest in
so many areas around the world and that's not a responsible pet owner thing to do so take that
into consideration before you hatch out any eggs that it's your responsibility to manage
what you do breed and if you can't do that then just collect the eggs every day. If you'd like
to learn more about Muscovy ducks then check out my Muscovy duck playlists and if you have
any further questions or comments then leave them below, thanks for watching I'll see you next time