Me and my silkie chicks are at the edge of our seat! I read through all 26 pages and I hope it goes well with your duckling!
I haven't hatched ducks before, but I know how stressful it can be when hatches start getting complicated. I had to help some of my silkie chicks and one of my quail chicks hatch, and my god, I was trembling like a leaf which did not make it any easier. I would never make a good surgeon. I have been lucky so far that my gut instinct was correct in the assisted hatching attempts.
The silkie chicks were under a hen before I moved the rest into the incubator after some started needing assistance, one got shrinkwrapped, which I found out after chipping away at the piphole for a better look with the candler torch, and another had a dried membrane that had turned brown. The quail egg also had a brown membrane, being a Chinese Painted Quail egg, was both easier and way more stressful than the chicken eggs at hatching, with the thinner shell making it easier to chip away at but the smaller size making the margin for error way larger.
All these cases, even with the tiny quail egg, took a lot of time. The first silkie chick I assisted, the shrinkwrapped one, I didn't even think would make it, fearing I took too long to help as it was very weak and couldn't even lift it's head up, open it's eyes or open it's toes after leaving the egg... But within 2 hours of me petting and talking to it and letting it's sibling down to peep at it, what it felt like at least, it slowly started gaining strength, opening it's eyes before then eventually starting on trying to stand but couldn't lift up it's head still... My friends online thought I was crazy for staying with the chick for so long, but I didn't want it to die alone if it did pass.
And well, now... It is a chatterbox that likes sitting on my knee peeping to me about how it's day has been and begging for treats, and is one of the 'lead' chicks, being the secondborn after it's sibling who luckily hatched healthily under the hen and is so lively that the moment I put it down outside for playtime when the weather is nice, it starts running and fluttering about with joy.
The other assisted hatches, while still stressful as hell, were also a lot smoother than my first assisting attempt, even the quail went a lot smoother than I expected.
I haven't hatched ducks before, but I know how stressful it can be when hatches start getting complicated. I had to help some of my silkie chicks and one of my quail chicks hatch, and my god, I was trembling like a leaf which did not make it any easier. I would never make a good surgeon. I have been lucky so far that my gut instinct was correct in the assisted hatching attempts.
The silkie chicks were under a hen before I moved the rest into the incubator after some started needing assistance, one got shrinkwrapped, which I found out after chipping away at the piphole for a better look with the candler torch, and another had a dried membrane that had turned brown. The quail egg also had a brown membrane, being a Chinese Painted Quail egg, was both easier and way more stressful than the chicken eggs at hatching, with the thinner shell making it easier to chip away at but the smaller size making the margin for error way larger.
All these cases, even with the tiny quail egg, took a lot of time. The first silkie chick I assisted, the shrinkwrapped one, I didn't even think would make it, fearing I took too long to help as it was very weak and couldn't even lift it's head up, open it's eyes or open it's toes after leaving the egg... But within 2 hours of me petting and talking to it and letting it's sibling down to peep at it, what it felt like at least, it slowly started gaining strength, opening it's eyes before then eventually starting on trying to stand but couldn't lift up it's head still... My friends online thought I was crazy for staying with the chick for so long, but I didn't want it to die alone if it did pass.
And well, now... It is a chatterbox that likes sitting on my knee peeping to me about how it's day has been and begging for treats, and is one of the 'lead' chicks, being the secondborn after it's sibling who luckily hatched healthily under the hen and is so lively that the moment I put it down outside for playtime when the weather is nice, it starts running and fluttering about with joy.
The other assisted hatches, while still stressful as hell, were also a lot smoother than my first assisting attempt, even the quail went a lot smoother than I expected.
Steven is getting some rest...
