A silly question about mule ducks

[Henschickspups]

I have been at work all afternoon and was wondering how he was doing. I hope all is well.

Had to drop the kids, will have an update within the hour

 

[Henschickspups]

Neosporin will darken the egg like that. Nothing to worry about.

So, it hit me about ten minutes after posting my prior reply. Is the darkening of the shell from the neosporin caused by the neosporin melting and spreading between the internal and external membranes? Is that in any way problematic, or just a thing that happens?

I do remember reading somewhere on here that some duck eggs become discolored when they are ready to hatch. Now, for the life of me, I cannot find a single reference to that, and am questioning if it was in a dream or something.

 

[Henschickspups]

My eggs all turned dark with the ducklings being dark in color. How is it doing and if it starts to breathe hard I would assist the hatch myself. Go slow with it and see how it goes. Mule ducks do not lay eggs but Hinnies can.

So, he is a dark colored duckling, but the way the discoloration is spreading does not seem anything to do with duckling color, with how even it's spreading. I thought I was hallucinating at first, and when my husband confirmed that yeah, it's definitely changing color I posted.

 

[casportpony]

Is the darkening of the shell from the neosporin caused by the neosporin melting and spreading between the internal and external membranes?

Yes

Is that in any way problematic, or just a thing that happens?

No

I do remember reading somewhere on here that some duck eggs become discolored when they are ready to hatch. Now, for the life of me, I cannot find a single reference to that, and am questioning if it was in a dream or something.

The darkening is from the Neosporin.

 

[casportpony]

So, he is a dark colored duckling, but the way the discoloration is spreading does not seem anything to do with duckling color, with how even it's spreading. I thought I was hallucinating at first, and when my husband confirmed that yeah, it's definitely changing color I posted.

It has nothing to do with the color of the duckling.

 

[Henschickspups]

Casportpony, even though this is definitely from neosporin, are there eggs that change color around hatch? Or did I somehow make that up? I need to start taking notes.

Here's a photo from just now, where I'm kinda candling through the opening to check blood vessels. He definitely still has some absorbing to do, and his chewing/chattering and yawning (the biggest, cutest) yawns every now and then.

Thank you both for your help with this, I got very confused with the discoloration, and you've saved me from an anxiety attack, at the very least

 

[Luv Ducks]

My white eggs all turned dark when it was time for the ducklings to get ready to hatch. My Mallard eggs are green and I could never see a change in them. I pray that you duckling makes it. I have to turn in now as I have to get up at 3:45 to go to work tomorrow. Good luck. Keep us posted. All of my ducks are dark colored that I have hatched. Never any Pekins or white ones.

 

[Henschickspups]

My white eggs all turned dark when it was time for the ducklings to get ready to hatch. My Mallard eggs are green and I could never see a change in them. I pray that you duckling makes it. I have to turn in now as I have to get up at 3:45 to go to work tomorrow. Good luck. Keep us posted. All of my ducks are dark colored that I have hatched. Never any Pekins or white ones.

There's green duck eggs?!

I will do everything in my power to keep ducky this side of death, even if I have to drag him kicking and screaming. Thankfully, the best thing I can do right now is just keep him warm and humid and a moist membrane and let him do his thing.

I'll be heading to bed myself soon, so I'll be sure to update in the morning.

 

[Henschickspups]

Random non urgent, but for future hatches question:

The only time I've heard any chirping or noises from Thomas (excluding clicking while breathing) is when I reapplied neosporin this morning. Are all ducks quiet while hatching? Or are muscovies? Or is this a unique thing for Thomas? I think that's why there's some of the "is everything ok?!" anxiety. None of my chickens were this quiet while hatching, and some of them I could even hear across the room before external pipping. This little dude, though, is almost silent.

 

[Henschickspups]

It appears I told a fib. Gonna be a late night for me.

Again. Documenting for my own records and hoping somebody can also use this information in the future.

The internal membrane around the internal pip baby made is becoming very dark brown, almost black. That area has been pipped for a minimum of 26 hours, and aligns with the moist spot of the membrane when I first opened him up, before applying neosporin. The membrane was looking a bit opaque again, so before getting ready for bed, I applied a bit more neosporin. (Glob on qtip, only touching the neosporin to membrane, not qtip, so I don't accidentally tear anything.) Baby began squirming a bit, as he has been, and pushed his beak through the opening a bit more, revealing his nostril. At this point, he began breathing much easier, and squeaked a few more times. Still very quiet, but if I accidentally got neosporin around his nostril and it was occluding, may explain how quiet he's been, and the almost appearance of labored breathing at times.

At this point, he is making motions as though to make an external pip, and beginning to squirm himself into a position that would allow him to do so and get his bill close enough to the shell to breathe through that hole.

Game plan: watch humidity and temperature closely, keeping humidity as close to 70 as possible, while keeping the vent completely open. Check the membrane every 3-4 hours, and reapply neosporin as needed to keep it moist. Small dish, sterile gauze (in place of paper towel, because of course I ran out this morning) neosporin, qtips, cornstarch, kwikstop, tweezers, rubbing alcohol, nutridrench are at the ready beside incubator. Sugar water, thinned yolk, honey water, etc can be mixed quickly if required. I dont have electrolyte packs at the moment, so i have an "in a pinch" recipe bookmarked. Getting the heat lamp set up, and heating pad is beside incubator, ready if needed. Is this absolute overkill? 100% But I was a girl scout and an emt, so I'd rather have all possible tools ready and not need them, vs hunting through my house.

I will only step in and interfere if one of the following two situations occur: the blood vessels are absorbed AND baby is trying to turn to zip without success, OR, it becomes a nothing left to lose situation, meaning movement and noise have ceased and breathing is *extremely* labored or has also ceased.

After having near consistent issues with sticky chick before, I'm prepared for the possibility. I did keep humidity lower throughout this incubation than prior (chicken) incubations, though I was unable to keep it as steady as I would have liked. It would frequently fluctuate from 24%-50%, though I did get it a bit steadier as incubation progressed. So fingers crossed that won't be an issue this time.

I do think some of the past sticky chicks were from humidity spikes during hatch, as they seemed to get worse as hatch progressed. I'm not thinking it will be an issue with this one, given it's only one egg hatching. If this was a chicken hatch, I'd be trying to get lockdown humidity a touch lower, I seem to have less issues closer to 60% then 70%, but reading through for ducks, 70% seems better for them.

I'm slightly concerned about shrinkwrapping, with the giant hole I opened up, but as ducky moves, membrane is flexing, and lifting with wing/foot movement. At this point, if there is any, I feel it will be minor, perhaps leading to a longer zip period, but not something that will a truly urgent situation.

I do however have this vague anxiety that he won't be able to zip properly due to how/where I opened up the hole. I'm also fairly certain there's no real possibility of that.

Edit to add: I do not have shelf liner on the tray this time - when it's in, I can't get humidity above mid 60s, and with it out, I can keep humidity closer to 70. Not thrilled about how much it's interfering with humidity, but unsurprised.

This got really long, and if anyone actually reads all of it, thank you, hope it is helpful, or at least not grossly inaccurate. Combination of what I've read, experiences hatching an entirely different species, with a bit of conjecture and anxiety thrown in. It also going to be printed out later and stapled into my notebook, vs the scribbled half notes from prior hatches.