Help!

[ahtes]

I had a chicken sitting on eggs and she rejected them after 3 of the chickens had hatched! I always trusted the mom so I threw them in the woods like I do every time we hatch. But this time one was still alive and when I tossed it into the woods the shell fracked and he baby duck was peeping. I feel so awful I can't imagine what I just did. The poor thing what it must have thought. I have had birds for 13 years and this has never happened! My dads first reaction when I grabbed him and brought it inside was to open the egg and help it because he thought it was hurt and needed help! We opened the egg and it was still attached to embryo. We put it in a box and made it humid as possible with water and heating lamps as well as moist paper towels. The embryo seems to be gone and it's still breathing and chirping after 1 day but it is stil attached with cords. I know I messed up on many levels and I just want the poor thing to live. I never meant for this to happen!!!

 

[PD-Riverman]

I had a chicken sitting on eggs and she rejected them after 3 of the chickens had hatched! I always trusted the mom so I threw them in the woods like I do every time we hatch. But this time one was still alive and when I tossed it into the woods the shell fracked and he baby duck was peeping. I feel so awful I can't imagine what I just did. The poor thing what it must have thought. I have had birds for 13 years and this has never happened! My dads first reaction when I grabbed him and brought it inside was to open the egg and help it because he thought it was hurt and needed help! We opened the egg and it was still attached to embryo. We put it in a box and made it humid as possible with water and heating lamps as well as moist paper towels. The embryo seems to be gone and it's still breathing and chirping after 1 day but it is stil attached with cords. I know I messed up on many levels and I just want the poor thing to live. I never meant for this to happen!!!

OK, Welcome!
Now, are you saying you had a chicken setting on Duck and chicken eggs? First thing is---did you put the duck eggs under her and wait a week and put the chicken eggs under---knowing most duck eggs take a week longer to hatch?? How long did the hen stay on the nest after the first 3 hatched?

 

[bobbi-j]

I had a chicken sitting on eggs and she rejected them after 3 of the chickens had hatched! I always trusted the mom so I threw them in the woods like I do every time we hatch. But this time one was still alive and when I tossed it into the woods the shell fracked and he baby duck was peeping. I feel so awful I can't imagine what I just did. The poor thing what it must have thought. I have had birds for 13 years and this has never happened! My dads first reaction when I grabbed him and brought it inside was to open the egg and help it because he thought it was hurt and needed help! We opened the egg and it was still attached to embryo. We put it in a box and made it humid as possible with water and heating lamps as well as moist paper towels. The embryo seems to be gone and it's still breathing and chirping after 1 day but it is stil attached with cords. I know I messed up on many levels and I just want the poor thing to live. I never meant for this to happen!!!

Don't beat yourself up. This chicken (and duck) keeping thing is an ongoing learning experience and sometimes the learning curve is steep. As PD said, duck eggs have a 28 day incubation, while chickens are 21 (average for both - sometimes it's shorter, sometimes it's longer). If you want a hen to hatch both, the duck eggs needed to be set a week earlier than the chicken eggs. Mama probably figured her eggs were done hatching when her chicks hatched and nothing else happened.

for your little duckling!

 

[ahtes]

The little thing is still alive the only thing left on him is the umbilical cord. The first babie chickens hatched on last Friday and the last chicken did I think on Monday but they were put in on separate days depending on what days the chicken jumped in the box and floated them. I just got back from training in the Air Force so my dad was raising them while I was gone so I don't know exact dates. I think he's a few days early like 2 or 3.