- Aug 19, 2013
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I have a Muscovy duckling on day 35 who pipped externally 2 days ago. It was under my Muscovy hen but she has given up on the eggs (a Khaki egg was snuck into the nest without me realising, it hatched last week and the mum is wandering off with it now that it's older and more active) 2 of the Muscovy eggs have died already and I just have this one left.
I decided to help it out with the hatch, I chipped away at the pip (which hadn't made any progress in over 24 hours and no peeping from inside the egg) and I found the inner membrane was thick, white and clinging to the duckling. It's in a diy brooder now with a bulb and covered in wet paper towels except the breathing hole. Everything looks ok but doubt it'll hatch unaided now as it got pretty tired.
My only concern is the time it's taken for the blood vessels to dissolve, it pipped externally 2 days ago... There's one large vessel near it's head that I want to stay well clear of so I'm not any further now. My question is whether this is normal after all this time? I've kept a close eye on it for hours now. Hopefully you can see in the pic.
Not getting my hopes up but it's better than certain death if I had left it in the nest.
I decided to help it out with the hatch, I chipped away at the pip (which hadn't made any progress in over 24 hours and no peeping from inside the egg) and I found the inner membrane was thick, white and clinging to the duckling. It's in a diy brooder now with a bulb and covered in wet paper towels except the breathing hole. Everything looks ok but doubt it'll hatch unaided now as it got pretty tired.
My only concern is the time it's taken for the blood vessels to dissolve, it pipped externally 2 days ago... There's one large vessel near it's head that I want to stay well clear of so I'm not any further now. My question is whether this is normal after all this time? I've kept a close eye on it for hours now. Hopefully you can see in the pic.
Not getting my hopes up but it's better than certain death if I had left it in the nest.
