Late to Hatch Duckling Advice?

[jloops]

Hi everyone, this is my first time posting but I've been a long time lurker (even before I had ducks!). I'm Loops and I'm from New Hampshire, USA!

My family started a small flock last year with some duckling we purchased from Runnings. We ended up with two Khaki Campbells (Prissy♀ and Edward♂), and two Rouens (Macaroni♀ and Noodle♂ ). They're not imprinted on us since they were already few days old when we got them, but they ended up very friendly and sweet.

Macaroni recently hatched a clutch of eggs on July 5th and is doing well as a first-time mom so far. She's very protective of the ducklings though still wags her tail when she sees us, and is currently still nested in their coop and watching over 8 ducklings who are now two days old and just beginning to explore the coop.

Today I went outside to visit with the flock and hand out some afternoon treats and found a just-hatched duckling laying outside and covered in ants. The egg it came from was outside the coop and unattended, and one that was recently rolled out for whatever reason they decided to do that. Assuming it hadn't made it, I picked it up to remove a body from the pen, and to my surprise it started squirming around and peeping really strongly! After panicking a bit about what to do I decided to bring it into the house to warm it up, brushed the ants off to see the damage (a few bites but nothing serious, thankfully!), and put it in a box with some dryer-warmed cloth.

At this point its eyes have opened and its begun to try and move around some. It has great mobility and seems quite healthy, peeping and squirming and trying to walk around.

My question is... what should I do with this duckling to give it the best chance of survival?
It's two days younger than its clutchmates, and much smaller because of that. I'm concerned it may have a lower chance of success or that Macaroni may not take to it because she wasn't around when it hatched. It's very warm out (88 degrees), so for the time being I've put it in the coop with her after letting it dry off and giving it a final once over. I will be going out again to lock them up in two hours and will of course check on it again then.

If she hasn't tucked it into the pile with the rest by then should I pull it and keep it inside until its fledged? Is this duckling imprinted on me because of these early hours together and now won't bond with Macaroni?

I know photos aren't super necessary for this but I figure I have them, and maybe someone will notice something I didn't.

Spoiler: Baby Photos

Here's Mamaroni with her first-hatched around 10:30 PM on the 5th, with a few other eggs just starting to hatch.

By morning we had 3 more, all were grey babies with yellow face markings. I'm assuming they're mixed from the breeds we have:

And here's the poor wet baby I found this afternoon right after I brushed the ants off of it and looked it over. Looks like it may have been an egg Macaroni stole from Prissy since it's solid khaki:

Thank you in advance to anyone who can offer a bit of guidance on what to do, or even just confirmation I did what I should.

 

[Miss Lydia]

How is the duckling doing out with mama and the other ducklings? @jloops

 

[jloops]

Thank you for asking, @Miss Lydia it's doing well without mama! Macaroni ended up booting it out of the coop in the time between my posting this thread and when I locked them up for the night, so I brought it back in and kept it warm overnight.

By morning another unattended egg had hatched inside the coop and she showed no interest in that duckling who was in a much more harrowing condition when I found it. A bit of time with proper heating and some towels to speed up the drying process worked wonders, and seems to have secured the little one a friend so I'm less worried about it getting lonely now.

...And we found three more buried, pipping eggs cleaning the coop out today, so I guess I'll have five inside ducklings and she'll keep the other eight outside until we can successfully integrate them all together or rehome excess related drakes.

 

[Miss Lydia]

So wonderful to hear they are doing good with your intervention. I guess mama decided 8 was enough. Sure hope the other 3 hatch without issues. Keep us updated on how they are all doing.

 

[jloops]

We sadly lost two of the eggs, but one successfully hatched and joined the first two! All were happy and healthy inside but knowing it would be best if they had a duck mother instead of growing up in a box I tried another re-introduction to Macaroni now that she's settled in.

She ran over immediately and collected them from me once I set them on the ground! I'll be keeping an eye to make sure they don't fall behind since they're a bit smaller than the others (they're 1-2 days younger at this point). For a first time mother she really seems to know what to do, it's amazing.

Here are the three who had an indoor start making an absolute mess of my kitchen sink.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I hope it works it's always so much better if mama gets to raise them and teach them.

Congrats on the precious little ones.