Hi everyone. Im getting a bit nervous and hope im doing the right thing. I have a broody chicken sitting on duck eggs. One is a couple of days older than the rest. There was an internal pip about 3 days ago. I saw this from candling. No chirping that i ever heard. After reading many post here, i took a chance, found the beak and made a little hole for breathing. I feel i did the right thing because the membrane was white, dry and crumpled. Part of it was dry and laying on the duckings beak and nostrils. When i pulled that up off the duckling, i was thrilled to hear litte chirps happening. Thats when the trouble started though. The broody hen started pecking it, cracked and broke some of the shell, and caused a tiny (really tiny) speck of blood. That frightened me so i removed that egg. I do not have an incubator. I currently have the egg mostly wrapped in and on a damp towel and I have it under a heat lamp. Im not touching it unless the membrane whitens and dries up again and then im only dabbing it with a drop of water. I guess i just need reassuring and any advice you can give. Ive never done anything like this. From what i can see, the duckling looks like it grew correctly in the shell. I can see the beak and some feathers. The eyes are behind feathers still. Thanks in advance.
