Hey can you help me with my duckling eggI have co-broodies again, two D'Anver hens who went broody the same day. They are in a broody cage in the front storage area of the bantam coop. Day 13 came with me finding some large ants invading the front of that cage. I smashed them as fast as I could and called for DH.
As we were checking the nests, DH picked up Carly and didn't check well enough. One of her two eggs dropped from several inches high, hitting the wooden bottom of the cage with a thud-crack. The curve at the aircell was crackled pretty good. At first I said just toss it, that the chick couldn't have survived that drop, but we candled it and found it dancing all over. So, DH melted parafin wax, coated that cracked-up area to seal it, brought it inside and cranked up an old heating pad with a moist foam insert. We were afraid that with the shell compromised, the hen would crush it or or the wax would melt off with her direct body heat.
The heat was all over the place, though it usually stayed between 97 and 101.5 right beside the egg, which we measured with the outdoor probe of my Taylor thermometer, but on occasion would go down to 95 or at times, would hit 108 briefly. We candled almost every day, expecting a blood ring. Never happened. By yesterday, the chick was in the air cell. Today, it was chirping. A few hours ago, it pipped on the side opposite the crackled up area and was making some progress, then DH decided to help it along by chipping it away slowly, since Carly's other chick had just hatched and we wanted to get this one under her for her to raise with it's sibling, plus the temps were still fluctuating on the pad.
Here is heating pad chick, actually belonging to Penny, not Carly. It's a Mille Fleur D'Anver, split to porcelain since the sire is porcelain.
