Muscovy Eggs Won't Hatch

[Inga73]

Looking for the duck hatching experts!

I have scoured the internet and can't find a reason that makes sense why my Muscovy eggs aren't hatching. Our own eggs are definitely fertile, we let a mama hen hatch out a clutch and she hatched 11 out of 12 eggs. The trouble comes when we incubate them ourselves. Development looks great from beginning to end, looking at the air cell etc. They seem to be growing at an appropriate rate according to growth charts. Our last hatch, we had 41 eggs in the incubator (most bought from a local farm, about a dozen of our own), and only 3 hatched. Currently we have 10 of our own eggs that were due to hatch yesterday. I have candled them and cannot see an internal pip - I read that you can see their beak in the air cell when they have, and I definitely can't see anything.

What could cause these ducklings to fully develop, but not pip?

Temperature and humidity were always stable at the recommended levels, but I'm open to changing things up - or just letting mama duck hatch them all from now on!

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

That must be frustrating. I've incubated quite a few Muscovy eggs, myself, and the only ones that didn't hatch were shipped from a neighboring state, misrouted by USPS way north during a snowstorm, and arrived late (and nonviable at that point). After that, I stuck to hatching my own ducks' eggs.

What temperature and humidity levels are you using? And are you misting and cooling the eggs?

 

[bhaugh]

I feel your pain. I've had terrible luck hatching muscovy eggs. Mine usually die off those dreaded last days. I've had the ducks hatch ducklings in the middle of summer in Vegas and I can't get past 30 days in an incubator. I've never been able to figure it out. I do lay my eggs on their sides because of my incubator so maybe that's it. I've hatched other duck breeds but muscovy elude me.