Muscovy Brother And Sister Mated

papique · Post by **papique** » 06 Apr 2014, 19:54

Hi,

I'm new to the forum and have read a lot of confusing thinks on the web regarding my questions.
Firstly my Muscovies, Kate & William, are brother and sister. They will be around 18months old, and do mate.
Last October Kate made her nest in an old compost bin, directly onto soil, sat on eight eggs, and only got off the nest to bathe and eat. After around three weeks there was a bad smell coming from her nest, which by now had her down all around it, although the eggs themselves were still on soil.
When she left the nest to do her ablutions one time, I found the offending smelly egg and removed - it was rotten.
She carried on sitting, but left them after about forty odd days - I think she knew the egss weren't going to hatch. We cracked the eggs and some of them had fully formed ducklings inside.....
Back to now, she's laid a clutch of eleven eggs (chucked one out a couple of weeks ago) in a nest built in her duck house, and has been sitting on ten eggs now for around 35ish days, only coming off to feed and bathe as before.

Questions:

1) Is there a major problem with brother and sister produced eggs? Some people say yes, some say no.....confused.com!

2) How long would you give it before the eggs are taken from her, if they haven't hatched or should I just let her decide?

Thanks in anticipation >coc<

kitla · Post by **kitla** » 06 Apr 2014, 20:31

hello
I don't have ducks but I have brother & sister bantam chickens, having been told
it was ok I let her hatch 2 of their eggs. One was perfect, the other hatched a
blind chick. Since then the cockerel's eyes become a bit odd & the vet thinks its
a genetic defect. So he was probably already too inbred & that's why they produced
a blind chick. My point is it may be worth checking for inbreeding where you got
your ducks before you hatch their eggs.
Sorry I've no idea how long duck eggs take to hatch, chickens are 21 days
hopefully someone else will be along soon that knows.
ps if they hatch can we have some pics?

kitla · Post by **kitla** » 06 Apr 2014, 20:31

hello
I don't have ducks but I have brother & sister bantam chickens, having been told
it was ok I let her hatch 2 of their eggs. One was perfect, the other hatched a
blind chick. Since then the cockerel's eyes become a bit odd & the vet thinks its
a genetic defect. So he was probably already too inbred & that's why they produced
a blind chick. My point is it may be worth checking for inbreeding where you got
your ducks before you hatch their eggs.
Sorry I've no idea how long duck eggs take to hatch, chickens are 21 days
hopefully someone else will be along soon that knows.
ps if they hatch can we have some pics?

Sandra M · Post by **Sandra M** » 06 Apr 2014, 20:43

Muscovy ducks take 35 days to hatch she might just leave the nest if not i would give her another week. AS for the inbreeding bit late now see what comes out but i wouldn't let it happen with the new ducks.

papique · Post by **papique** » 06 Apr 2014, 21:01

Thanks for your comments.

I did read loads of stuff on the internet about line breeding, and how it happens in all types of animals, both in the wild and by breeders, to keep a good strain going. Then you read that it's not healthy - so who to believe?

I will check who the parents of my two were, good idea.

Thanks again

papique · Post by **papique** » 17 Apr 2014, 11:02

Hi, just to let you know that the morning I decided to remove the eggs from her nest, on 11 th April, some 40 plus days since the day she started sitting, she's hatched eight little beauties!
All appear to be healthy and are running around and swimming happily.
Happy days
)wav(