Emergency!!! Egg on 25th day

[MammysDucklings]

First duckling hatched perfectly fine this morning and #2 is getting close.
It was beyond awesome watching Gods Little Miracle enter this world.
Cant say thanks enough to all of you. So now my next question is when
do they start eating? I know i have to leave them in there until they are
completely dry but what if the others dont hatch until tommorrow?

 

[QuackerJackFarms]

First duckling hatched perfectly fine this morning and #2 is getting close.
It was beyond awesome watching Gods Little Miracle enter this world.
Cant say thanks enough to all of you. So now my next question is when
do they start eating? I know i have to leave them in there until they are
completely dry but what if the others dont hatch until tommorrow?

Yay!! They won't need to eat for a couple days. I leave them in the hatcher until they are all hatched. Unless there is a slow poke and the others are completely dry, just play that one by ear.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Awesome Congrats!!!

 

[MammysDucklings]

what about water ?? So if they all hatch and i have them out by tommorrow morning, can i give them food then?

 

[mrgreenjeans53]

rosie316,

I think Mallards take their sweet time to hatch. One of my 7 Mallard eggs hatched yesterday afternoon, 27 hours after the external pip. Another one externally pipped just before the first one hatched. My humidity is at 63% so the shell was pretty soft for him/her to break out of its little prison. With Mallards, it's just a waiting game....lol.

Good luck with your hatches everyone!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[MammysDucklings]

I now have 4 wobbling around.lol And the last one looks like it will be out soon.
So the first one hatched about 8 this morning and the last one should be out
soon, so would leaving them there until the morning will be ok? And then
when i get them out a put them in the place i plan on keeping them, can
i give them food and water then or do they have to wait a certain amount
of time. They are acting like they are starving. they are eating at the pieces
of egg shells in there and trying to get water off the plexi glass.lol

 

[Miss Lydia]

I now have 4 wobbling around.lol And the last one looks like it will be out soon.
So the first one hatched about 8 this morning and the last one should be out
soon, so would leaving them there until the morning will be ok? And then
when i get them out a put them in the place i plan on keeping them, can
i give them food and water then or do they have to wait a certain amount
of time. They are acting like they are starving. they are eating at the pieces
of egg shells in there and trying to get water off the plexi glass.lol

Yes put food and water in their brooder. Do not brood them on shaving right off. you can put shavings in their brooder but put paper towels over top they may eat on the shavings. I usually don't use shaving till they are 2 weeks old. also the rubber shelf liner works great for brooding. And since i don't hatch in bators I am trying to remember but i think you are suppose to leave them in till they are dry, hopefully someone with more experience there will be on soon.

 

[Gyoza]

After much encouragement and help from QF 3 of 4 ducklings alive and well. 2 of them were natural born and 1 had to be given c-section. It's membrane were thick and rubbery.

How long will it take for their feathers to dry? They are still very wet.

 

[Gyoza]

All ducklings are dead!!
I moved them to brooder last night temp at 96F and this morning woke up to see all three ducklings are dead!!! What happened?!?

 

[mrgreenjeans53]

Sorry for your loss.

How big is your brooder and what wattage is your heat lamp for them? Sounds like a temp problem. If your brooder is small and you have a high wattage heat lamp the ducklings can't get far enough away from the heat. If you use too small a wattage bulb they won't get enough heat.

I keep my babies in a cardboard box (15"x24") with an open top and a 125watt bulb on one end that is flush with top of the box. They usually stay at the opposite end of the box from where the light is when they get too warm and move in closer to the light if they get cold. I keep their water and food on the opposite end of the light. The water stays cooler that way.

By the way, did you dip their little beaks in water when you moved them to the brooder? They need to learn how to drink, but they always seem to know how to eat without showing them.

I also remove my babies from the incubator to the brooder when their top layer of down is dry (they are still a little wet). I do this because I leave my eggs in the auto turner to hatch, turner is, of course, unplugged during lockdown, and I am afraid they will get their little legs hung up in the turner and also so they don't disrupt the other eggs.

I have 2 little Mallards, 1 born friday and 1 born yesterday. Another is hatching and will be born sometime today.


Again, I am sorry for your loss. Please don't give up on hatching. We all learn by our mistakes and mistakes aren't the end of the world.....keep trying.