HELP needed for stuck ducklings!!!

[Sunny Side Up]

Please advise! I have 6 duck eggs under a broody bantam hen. Five of them began pipping 36 hours ago, on Sunday night. This morning they are no further along. I picked their pip holes a bit larger, not much but enough to try and encourage them, about the size of a small shirt button. Their beaks are still moving and they're peeping. I put them back under Mama hen.

What more, if anything, should I do? How long before I open them even more?

These are eggs from a friend's duck, she has been having trouble getting them to hatch in an incubator and we really want these to succeed.

Thank you for your help!

 

[LillyBantam]

Oh good luck, im thinking of you. I have just set my first duck eggs. I hope someone on here can help you. I hatched chicken eggs in an incubator last year, and when one got stuck I dripped a small amount of water to help her out. but you have to be careful not too much because it might drown the little mite. But I am not sure if you're supposed to do this, I just had to try something. Is 'mamma' hen concerned/helping?

Please let us know how you go. xxx

 

[FireTigeris]

warm water on paper towels?

if they are 'zipping' instead of 'pipping' you can help- it's been so long now you might want to help by now anyway-

understand that part of the hatching process seems to help the duck/chick/bird to prepare the circulation for life outside the egg.

 

[LillyBantam]

I agree with Sunny Side Up, if they've started to break through they're ready. While I agree they have to be strong to break out preparing them for life, there's no harm in helping out. I think you'd rather try that than feel bad after for not helping them through. That's what I plan when the time comes for mine. Its all so worrying isnt it.

Keep us posted. x

 

[fowlsessed]

I recently had a hatch (and still have some coming out in the incubator) I had 10 duck eggs and 23 chicken eggs. I got a really early hatcher who had dried off already but the other eggs that where in there were only just starting to pip, so I opened the incubator and took him out. what I didn't know, and found out after putting the chick in the brooder and sitting down to look through a article I had seen in a backyard poultry mag., was that opening the incubator would drastically lower the humidity in the bator and the chicks would not get any farther than pipping stage, and it said if you have to open it to spray the eggs with some hot water out of a spray bottle with a very fine mist. so I rush to the room where the incubator is and find my mom with the lid wide open looking at the eggs, I scream no! and explain the news. but it was to late after that chick hatches were pretty bad and I had to help a few out I just chipped the shell untill their heads were out and made sure I sprayed them.

 

[fowlsessed]

by the way, I only got 4 ducks and 10 chicks, all doing well though.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Quote:

That's very true, which is why I hesitate to intervene. But this seems like an unusual situation, where some help may be needed. Which is why I'm asking the wise BYC community for advice.

The Mama hen is making encouraging bluck-bluck-blucking sounds. I am concerned for her too, being on lockdown on the nest for so long. The next time I go to check I may put her on the ground to eat/drink/poop.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Quote:

I agree with Sunny Side Up, if they've started to break through they're ready. While I agree they have to be strong to break out preparing them for life, there's no harm in helping out. I think you'd rather try that than feel bad after for not helping them through....

Well, there's more to it than that. I would love to talk with an ornithologist to learn exactly what transpires during the hatching process. It seems to be essential to the baby bird to do the work to get itself out of its shell. Often when chicks are taken out of the shell before they've had enough chance to peck & stretch & work at it they do not thrive.

So the nerve-wracking trick is to know just when to intervene, how much to intervene, and when to just sit on your hands and pray...

 

[FireTigeris]

Had ornithology, unfortunately that professor has retired.

http://pwp.surfglobal.net/rmangile/Pigeons/Hatching.html

(still looking)

http://www.treeswallowprojects.com/chatch.html (in the middle)

http://www.exoticpetvet.net/avian/incubation.html (towards the bottom)

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Yay! I just peeked under the hen and saw one duckling beginning to slide out of its shell. Mama hen didn't seem interested in going for a coffee break, she wanted to go right back on the nest. I saw little beaks moving in the holes of the other eggs. I had a spray bottle of water and lightly misted them all before the hen went back.

Please pray for success with the other eggs!