Hatching Duck Eggs Under Broody Chicken... Day 27 - Help / advice please

[J_Winstom]

I have a broody bantam chicken hen sitting on 5 runner duck eggs.

We are on day 27 and she has been a very diligent sitter. There so sign of anything coming from the eggs no peeping, no rocking, no pips. As she has already been sitting a long time I am conscious that I don't want her to go on too much longer for her health - but obviously would be very sad to give up at this point, with viable eggs.

I candled on day 25 eve and the eggs looked good but had VERY big air sacs - Obviously under a broody i have had no control of the humidity and it has been pretty hot here recently.

With large airsac could they be too weak to hatch? How long would you leave them?

I could give the chicken some dummy eggs and take these away to put incubator where I might be able to help?

Any advice would be much appreciated - first time with broody hen.

Also she is pretty aggressive so I don't want to keep messing around with her too much getting eggs out candling etc. if it might make the situation worse...

Thanks for any help in advance!

 

[JaeG]

Duck air sacks do get huge and ducklings take a long time to hatch. Had the air sacks drawn down on one side? That happens just prior to internal pipping. Once internally pipped they will take about 24 hours to externally pip. From there it's 24-48 hours until they actually start to unzip (which itself can take a few hours with ducks). So I don't think it's time to worry yet.

I've had bantams be broody (on nothing) for 6 weeks and they were fine. As long as she has access to good food once her babies have hatched she'll build up her reserves again.

 

[J_Winstom]

Thanks @JaeG -

Good to know duck egg air sacs are huge, that makes me feel more positive! 1 or 2 definitely did look like it had drawn down, rest just large.

As she is on the eggs I can't see anything, so I did turf her off this morning to have a quick look. Would you keep doing that or just listen for peeps and keep an eye on here to see if anything is going on?

Many thanks for your help!

 

[JaeG]

It's worse when eggs are in an incubator. You end up staring at them all day willing something to happen.

I'd just keep checking on her. Hopefully you'll see some cute little faces peeking out from under her in the next few days.

There are lots of knowledgeable duck people on the duck thread if you run into any issues. We are just hatching our first batch of duck eggs so still learning. Ensuring baby ducks get enough niacin seems to be the most important thing.

 

[Quacking ducks]

Ducks take 28 days to hatch.