Duckling hatching help!

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I’m a months long lurker but new member. Posted to duck forum with no response so trying this forum... We have 10 Welsh Harlequin and 5 domestic mallards that were set in a still air incubator together 27 days ago. Tonight will start day 28. We’ve been weighing the eggs and targeting 14% weight loss, which has proved tough as the mallards lose weight faster than the WH. Ran humidity at 45% with daily spraying. On day 24, I noticed during a quick candle while weighing that a mallard had internally pipped, so started lockdown Day 24, RH 65%. On Day 25-26, noticed external pips on mallards. External pips on WH Day 27. No zipping of mallards, some WH trying to zip but not progressing since last night. After hearing tapping and peeping all night but seeing no progress, I took the mallards out this AM, Day 27, 36-48 hr after external pip. I feared that they were “shrink wrapped” or desiccated as the mallards has lost more weight than ideal. However, all five mallards were alive, positioned with bill at the pip (one on narrow end), tapped and cheeped back to me. I enlarged the pips a little and confirmed no membranes sticking to chicks. No blood vessels seen in membrane. Since the mallards have a shorter incubation time than the WH, could they be waiting for a signal from the WH to zip? I moistened the mallard membranes with water and raised humidity to 75%. Should I leave them or chip some shell a few times a day?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

If I see no progress and no blood I sometimes will slowly enlarge the hole to help them out. Stop if you see blood. Could be they are still absorbing the yolk though, so don't push it too far.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

If I see no progress and no blood I sometimes will slowly enlarge the hole to help them out. Stop if you see blood. Could be they are still absorbing the yolk though, so don't push it too far.

Thanks for responding! I was so worried that I left work determined to do something for them. When I got home, two mallards had hatched! Now it’s the start of Day 28, four domestic mallards have hatched and one Welsh Harlequin is working hard. I knew that they take longer to hatch than chicks, but the time from internal pip to hatch was almost four days, time from external pip to hatch was almost 60 hours - I did not expect that! All four mallards look great, so I’m trying to leave them all alone in my now very dirty incubator... Do ducklings usually eat their own eggs? All ducklings are munching on shell and membrane; not sure if that’s normal for ducklings or if they took so long to hatch that they used their yolk and are now really hungry.... Thanks again for the suggestions!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I'm unsure if the munching is normal. I will tag @chickens really , she may have some advice in the morning. She has hatched a bunch of ducklings in her incubator.

I'm glad they finally hatched. I'm mostly familiar with hatching chicks.

 

[chickens really]

Remove the Ducklings to the Brooder..Provide wet soupy feed and dry. Give water. Don't force feed them though.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Thank you. I put them in the brooder and they did eat but don’t seem abnormally hungry. For anyone following this thread: we had five domestic mallards and 9 Welsh Harlequin in the incubator (actually 10 WH, but one is five days behind the rest because I cleaned/dipped the eggs and left one sitting in a box at room temperature for five days!). Mallards and WH were set at the same time, but mallards pipped one day before the WH, starting day 25. Both duck breeds had external pips of all eggs for 36-60 hours before hatching. Several WH had partially zipped also for 24 hr before hatch. Other than the enlargement of pip holes that I made in mallards at about 48 hr after pipping, there was no assistance with hatch. All mallards hatched on days 27-28 and all WH hatched day 28. All ducklings appear robust and healthy. In addition to learning that ducks can sit pipped for a long time and still hatch normally, I also found that percent water loss was not as important as I had expected. Mallards lost greater than desired (14%) egg weight and WH lost less, but all are healthy. I did mist or cool eggs every day after day 5 of incubation, except stopped on Day 21 for mallards. Thanks again for your help!