Big thing here is the membrane drying out. It'll become like a hard candy coating that they can't break. If it has been over 48 hours, I'd experimentally pull some of the shell off to see 1) if the blood vessels and such absorbed 2) if the membrane is as hard as it looks.
If the membrane is...
Chiming in on this old thread to say. YAS! The mash worked wonders for a duckling I had to help out of its shell and was doing just what the OP's duckling was doing. Bless this thread for existing.
My chicks are late! I have no idea when they'll actually get here now. My poor chicks... The lady at the post office was quite rude as well when I called to give them the heads up that there was a shipment of chicks inbound. It has not been my week.
I went with my husband to get parts for his truck and decided to stop by TSC to get some herbs that I saw they had in... AND as luck would have it they had some Black Copper pullets... So now I have five BCM chicks in the brooder (yes, separated from the first batch in their own brooder) :love...
I ask this because I'm growing my flock this year, not merely recouping lost numbers. (We had an issue with predators that caused me to lose over half my flock of 11 last year.) We are in the process of building a bigger, better enclosure with a large shed-type coop that I can easily walk in and...
I got an expected surprise as my Easter Egger chicks came early! Talk about panic! They weren't due for a week! :D haha Oh well, luckily I already had everything ready to go.
We call ourselves Fall Creek Adventures, and yep... we are on Instagram. (#FallCreekAdventures) Growing up my family always had lots of animals, so when I inherited my childhood home and land, my husband and I decided to start homesteading. :)
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first...