Muscovy Duck - Egg Membrane Day 42

[MariskaKilian]

Mom Muscovy ripped the one open further and this is what I'm looking at. He is alive and I took him inside under a lamp and wrapped him with glad wrap now. Not looking good. There is one that internal pipped all by himself and he is peeping so lets hop he has a better chance than this little one. Day 42 today. you can see in the video that he is still alive.

 

[MariskaKilian]

VideoPhoto - Way too much yolk
Photo - wrapped the baby in glad wrap except his face so that the yolk don't dry.

 

[healtyfeathers]

When you incubate eggs in an incubator, the last few days of the incubation are known as "lockdown". The eggs aren't moved at all, and the humidity is kept high. With a mother duck or chicken, when the eggs start pipping, she usually will not get off the nest for 2-3 days. When the mama stays on the eggs without getting up, the humidity builds up under her body, from the breathing chicks and the moisture from the hatching wet babies, giving the chicks/ducklings the moisture they need to hatch. It may be difficult to wait for them to hatch and wonder what's going on in there, but if you continually lift your duck up, you are lowering the humidity under her body. I hope that the little baby with the yoke makes it. I did not know that Muscovy hens would break their babies out of their eggs.

 

[MariskaKilian]

No what happened was these babies are 7 days overdue already, it is day 42 and they were due to hatch on day 35 so I opened a small hole to see what is going on and then saw that the membrane was tightening and it was loose from the air cell already but the babies were still inside and moving. They are hatched by the mother, the mother also gets out of the nest by herself and then I quickly take a look. But then when I saw the membrane was tightened and white, I opened it a small piece over the baby's head and then closed the egg again. When I got there about an hour ago I saw that the mother had crushed the egg so I took more of the egg shell off and that was when she started pecking at the baby. So I removed him and thought that I could just as well take him out but then saw how much egg yolk is still left. so I put glad wrap around the egg and left his head outside for air and so that the egg yolk don't dry. By the looks of this egg yolk, how much time would that take to pull into the baby more or less? it looks like allot to me.

 

[WVduckchick]

Yea that much yolk does not look good for that one. It also looks very liquidy. If it ruptures, I dont believe the baby can survive that. Have you tried dripping any water in its mouth?
Better luck with the rest of them...

 

[MariskaKilian]

No should I put water in his mouth? I thought he still gets everything from the yolk He is very weak now. He was hard as a rock so I had to clean him a little and blow dry him but then I had to stop because a small piece of yolk looked like it was cooked. he is still going though. A real fighter.

 

[WVduckchick]

Awww definitely a real fighter! The only one I had that had a bit of unabsorbed yolk almost had a cooked look too. Maybe not cooked, just more solid. That's why I said it looked very fluid in your picture. Kathy will know better, but she's west coast, so its still very early morning there. I'd try a little dip of water on your finger, just to see if it would take it in. It won't starve without it, but it will let you know if its going to try to thrive or not. Maybe.

 

[MariskaKilian]

The little one died. Then the chickens got hold of one in his egg so he died, they stole it from right under mother. Then mom went crazy and started ripping open the eggs that I made a hole in. So I had to grab what I can and bring them inside. She has four eggs under her still that I thought was dead but then I saw movement for the first time today in them so I left them right where they are. And one baby hatched on his own but he still has yolk as well, he is fluffed up already but just lying there very weak and mom doesn't seem to bother. So I don't know with these babies anymore.

 

[WVduckchick]

Oh no! I'm so sorry.

 

[healtyfeathers]

Sorry about all your bad luck with this hatch. It's always a good idea to separate the broody mamas. Give them a quiet little pen of their own. Did any of the ducklings survive?