I had to hatch a duck Christmas eve that was not hatching on its own and after 48 hours I intervened. The other ducks had all hatched by then and I was figuring there was probably a problem with this particular duck which had pipped through the shell with no other action afterwards. Once I got it out I saw the problem, its abdomen was all distended and where the cord should have been was a small hole. It was clear this duck was not going to make it so I culled it immediately. Just trying to trouble shoot now and see what the problem was. I was wondering if that meant it hadn't absorbed the yolk right or was it just deformed or not fully formed. Out of 12 eggs shipped I have 8 beautiful seemingly healthy ducklings so the rest of the batch was great. Does anyone recognize the problem, the belly looked like a grape size lump outside of where its belly should have been. I have not seen this one before...
