Crazyabouthens
Songster
My hen vicky went broody about 3 weeks ago now. I only have hens and don't have a rooster so her eggs weren't going to hatch. However, I do have a female and a male duck, the female lays eggs but she doesn't go broody so I just take her eggs to eat. So I done a bit of research about a hen raising a duck and what I read, it seems okay to do. So I gave her 3 duck eggs to sit on and everything was going good. Last week I noticed a crack on one of the eggs, it wasn't a big crack but you could see the "membrane" (I think it's called?) on the egg. I looked it up and there was lots of techniques to use to try keep the chick alive. The easiest one I saw was using masking tape to cover the hole to stop air and bacteria getting in. So that's why I did. I have been candling the eggs and they all look as though there is something in there. They are due to hatch this Thursday. But then this morning when I checked the eggs, another one had a very very small crack on it at the top of the egg. I don't know if that's meant to happen because it's due to hatch soon, or maybe vickey has accidently cracked it when she's been moving about. So that's my first worry that I need advice on, what do I do??? My second worry is about the other egg I put masking tape over. Will the chick still be able to hatch with that over it? Do I take it off??
