I'm a new muscovy owner and a bit devastated today.
I recently bought 3 ducks and a drake from someone that has had them for a couple of years as a breeding group. One of the ducks laid 11 eggs and has been sitting on them for about 25 days.
We live in the tropics, and it has just started raining a lot. I tried to put a cover over her and her eggs yesterday but there was still rain getting in. I checked her this morning and she seemed fine, but I did notice there was an ant crawling on her, which I thought strange.
When I got home tonight she was dead on her eggs, she had obviously been dead a few hours as she was quite stiff.
I am wondering whether she got too cold while sitting on her eggs? It was still at least 26 degrees at its coldest during the day. Should I have moved the eggs when I realised that they were getting wet?
I put the eggs under another duck that is sitting on two eggs (in fact there are two ducks sitting on the two eggs in the same box). I am worried that I don't know how long before I found the duck dead, that she died, and hence how long the eggs may have been allowed to cool down for. And in the event that they are still ok, will it matter that the eggs are a different age to the other eggs? (by about 5 days).
How do you think I can check to see if the eggs are still ok?
