Duckling Hatch: Normal?

[BrookBottomFarm]

Today is day 28 for my broody khaki campbells (there are 2 hens setting), and last night, two of the eggs had pipped. This morning, however, one of the eggs looks like it is almost completely missing the hard outer shell, but the duckling is still in the egg's membrane and doesn't look to have begun to open it up. I can see it in there breathing and peeping, but haven't been able to actually pick up the egg to get a closer look, as both mothers are VERY feisty over me being anywhere near their eggs. Is this normal for the duck egg hatching process, or should I help open up the thick membrane a bit? I have never hatched duck eggs, and I guess I just don't know if what I'm seeing is normal. It's only been about 12 hours since I noticed the first pips, so I thought I'd wait a bit to see what happens, but also don't want the duckling to die if it needs help. Any advice?

 

[Everose]

@CluckNDoodle @Miss Lydia @Demintion

 

[Miss Lydia]

Do you see active veins still inside the membrane? I'd say someone got impatient [mama duck] can you see an opening in the membrane?
I've never encountered this with my ducks but I have seen where their shell was smashed around them and they still hatched,
@shawluvsbirds @WVduckchick

 

[BrookBottomFarm]

It looks like this. Chick is inside lightly peeping, but parts of the membrane are drying up.

 

[BrookBottomFarm]

Do you see active veins still inside the membrane? I'd say someone got impatient [mama duck] can you see an opening in the membrane?
I've never encountered this with my ducks but I have seen where their shell was smashed around them and they still hatched,
@shawluvsbirds @WVduckchick

There is an opening by its beak, but it’s yellow and dry. The rest of the exposed membrane is along an entire side of the egg. Also drying up.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Can you still see blood veins? You could open more around the bill but you have to be so careful. Is it still under mama?

 

[BrookBottomFarm]

Can you still see blood veins? You could open more around the bill but you have to be so careful. Is it still under mama?

I applied a little coconut oil on the parts of the membrane that were dry, and put it back in with its mother. I plan to check again in an hour, and if nothing has changed, try to open it up a bit more. I didn't see any obvious blood veins with the coconut oil application, but I also tried to put it back pretty quickly so it didn't get more dry/cold.

If I help the duckling hatch and it lives, is it likely that the mother will accept it back right away, or could that cause problems. Only one other egg of the 6 has pipped so far (3 others look good; 1 I think is a dud), so it would likely be the first duckling.

 

[Miss Lydia]

It's hard to say hopefully she would. I hope someone comes for support since I have to leave.
Just keep watching.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Some broodies can be aggressive to the babies once they start to hatch and sometimes they just accidentally step on the egg, damaging it in the process.

I would recommend using antibiotic ointment without pain reliever on the membrane to keep it moist, coconut oil needs to be applied more often.

Do you have an incubator where you can keep the egg while you assist? I ask because in order to check to see if there are active blood vessels being absorbed you would want to carefully open the air cell end where there is a pip, apply ointment to that inner membrane and you should be able to see if there are full blood vessels or not by looking at the inner membrane.

If the duckling got really dry it's possible that it's just stuck and unable to rotate further but normally you will see a wider pip, like the duckling was repeatedly pecking at one spot over and over. This also isn't typically a big concern with broodies vs the dry environment in an incubator.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

I haven't had it happen with broody ducks since I use an incubator, but I have had feisty ducklings kick around an egg chipping off most of the eggshell before the membrane was unzipped. If it's day 28 I start to unzip the egg in small amounts (1/2 inch at a time) every 2 hours. This keeps the duckling from bleeding out if there are any veins. With so much of the membrane exposed you're going to be hard pressed to keep it from drying out and suctioning to the duckling.