Day 27 No Progress Under Broody Call

[Doobly]

Hi everyone! Need some advice again today!! Mama isn't sitting on the rest of the eggs anymore and is following her babies around. They're all in their housing still and the eggs still feel warm but 4 are still pipping. One I got a little kick from. What's the best thing to do now? Remove the babies or remove the eggs? Or bring them all in together into the cage in the interior of the house so they have more ambient heat? So far we have a mix of mallard and chocolate looking babies but one has little white splashes on their toes the sweetheart! Eight eggs remaining but I swear I counted too many ducklings for 14 in total!

 

[Doobly]

Is it incubator time now for the remaining eggs?

 

[Miss Lydia]

It maybe time I didn’t realize she was sitting on that many eggs. Do you have the bator warmed up an ready? Let’s see if @WVduckchick is on since she has big clutches under her ducks I keep mine small an haven’t ever run into this.

 

[Miss Lydia]

If she isn’t on the eggs any longer though I’d say she is through.

 

[quackiemama]

Congrats on your babies!

 

[WVduckchick]

Did momma go back to the eggs, or did you put them in the bator?

I'd say if she didn't go back in an hour or so, your best option would be to finish incubating them. Or take the already hatched ones, and see if she will go back to the nest, then return the other ones after dark. She should stay put at dark.

 

[Doobly]

Hi everyone. Well she had returned to the eggs with the babies underneath her when I went back to check. The incubator is on waiting still. We have 9 beautiful ducklings.
And then it all gets bittersweet!
We have a 10th who was nearly zipped and out at about 4pm. 8pm and I opened the housing to find them looking close to the brink on their own on the corner of the housing. Mum has obviously rejected it. We've taken it in and loved and cuddled it and put it in the brooder with one of my son's old dressing gowns and a teddy. We thought they were very, very cold at first but after slowly warming them up they are still very trembly. It's visually like watching someone with Parkinsons? Ordered some brewers yeast in case it's a nicacin problem but unsure if they will make it through the night... and then the next challenge is to get them to eat and drink tomorrow and see if they can. We are happy to make arrangements and care for a special needs duck as long as they have a good quality of life so it's one of those "if they want to live they're ours" scenarios. Their shell looked like the shell part (not the membrane) had been eaten when I finally found it in the nest? So I don't know if there was some instinctive aggression about it not being typical? Yolk is all absorbed and it is starting to make more normal vocalisations (it screamed hoarsely at first), it's also opening it's eyes more as they were completely shut when we found it. Not hopeful.
As for the remaining 6 eggs. 3 look like late quitters. A bit embryonic still. 1 I'm just not sure about. 2 have broken my heart. They have partially zipped and on candling you can see the sweet curl of wet down but no sound or movement. I'm guessing they're gone but I'm very upset at how close they came to "life". The membrane I can see is very dry. One of the zipped eggs has a spot of blood so may have nicked itself and bled out. No heart for an egg autopsy but knowing me I'll have to open them up just enough to check they're gone before burying.
Mama is back on babies and eggs for tonight.
I'll be more cheerful later when all this tough stuff is done!

Edit for those looking for info in future: 3 arrived day 30. 7 arrived day 31.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Aww bless she’s been busy today. I hope the little one makes it. You’ve done all you can and it sounds like some progress is being made. Sorry about the ones you lost.

 

[Doobly]

Aww bless she’s been busy today. I hope the little one makes it. You’ve done all you can and it sounds like some progress is being made. Sorry about the ones you lost.

You always know just what to say! Again, thanks for staying on this journey with me. We will give the eggs one more day with mama and then if there's still no movement take them out and enjoy those precious babes fully! I'm guessing if there are no kicks or movements or peeps on being candled it's very improbable that duckling is just a very heavy sleeper? (Off for more ferocious googling!) Will get some nice photos for everyone tomorrow. Seem to have a mixture of chocolate and mallard-of-sorts (7 year old Dad is a khaki call, mums are slightly light mallard calls). One of the babies has little white splashes on their inner most webbing! The other daft male we have is a chocolate with a little bit of white splash but until now I've highly doubted he's been involved in this as I've never caught him in the act!!

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Sorry to hear about the ones that didn’t make it, but Congratulations on the babies!