Need Help — duck abandoning eggs after 28 days. The ducklings are about to hatch!

[Galaxyfalcon]

We decided to let our girls have ducklings this year. Our two year old buff has been sitting on her nest for exactly 28 days as of today. She hasn't been the best mom, but last year was a lot worse. She's been pretty good sitting on her eggs but would sometimes get off for about 30-50 minutes. We would let her out to go have a bath and do her potty business away from the nest. For the most part she's been in the duck run on a nice little nest for the last month. Last night/today it seems she's had enough—she's basically not sitting on the nest anymore (sitting for a few hours at a time then off again). We have an older duck, too old to lay her own eggs, who has been sitting on the nest last night and this morning, but not full time. We've candled most of the eggs and a lot of them have movement, one is pecking/starting to peep. They're SO close to hatching I don't know what to do. We brought 5 of the most promising eggs inside and placed them in our incubator, the nest has another 7 eggs.

We really wanted the girls to raise/take care of/bond to the ducklings and I'm worried that hatching them in the brooder might completely offbalance that whole arrangement and the girls might not accept the ducklings. I'm planning on running the ducklings back out to the nest as they start hatching but I don't know if that's going to work.

Is there anything I can do to encourage the girls to get back on the nest? The mom is right on the finish line. I'm looking at the camera right now and she's off the nest again. I would be fine if the old duck went and sat on the nest again, at this point I'm completely out of ideas. I know the eggs are still alive but I'm not sure what to do. I don't want to take them all out and make the girls think the nest is gone. Any ideas?

Sorry for a long rant, I'm just freaking out! We were so close!

 

[Newfowler1]

Incubate them, more will survive if they pip and make it to hatch w/o question.

 

[Kiki]

If they aren't sitting on the eggs now then I'd move all the eggs to the bator.

There is no guarantee either will tend to the ducklings once they hatch...where ever they hatch. You can deal with that if and when that time comes.

Focus on keeping the eggs alive and giving them the best chance to hatch.

 

[KaleIAm]

Can you put all the eggs in the incubator and put some dummy eggs in the nest to hopefully keep your ducks broody? They might be more likely accept the babies that way. I've never done this before, but I have heard of duck hens accepting ducklings that are slipped under them when they are broody. Does anyone have experience with this?

You can get dummy eggs at a feed store.

 

[Galaxyfalcon]

A friend who also has ducks brought over some unfertilized duck eggs and we Indiana-Jones swiped them with all of the baby eggs. Baby's are currently in the incubator and most of them are moving around inside the shells! The girls were sitting on the fake-nest this morning but haven't been back on as far as I can tell. I'm hoping they stay broody long enough to swap the eggs back when they're hatching but we'll have to see it seems.

 

[KaleIAm]

A friend who also has ducks brought over some unfertilized duck eggs and we Indiana-Jones swiped them with all of the baby eggs. Baby's are currently in the incubator and most of them are moving around inside the shells! The girls were sitting on the fake-nest this morning but haven't been back on as far as I can tell. I'm hoping they stay broody long enough to swap the eggs back when they're hatching but we'll have to see it seems.

Well done! Keep us updated, and I'd love to see baby photos!

 

[Galaxyfalcon]

Well done! Keep us updated, and I'd love to see baby photos!

Update! We have our first baby! There are at least 4 other eggs that have pips, a few more show movement and a couple seem quiet. This one seems to have hatched pretty far ahead of the rest of the brood, so we're going to wait until we have a couple and see if the mom will take them back if we place them in the nest; if not we're going to hand raise them (which is a lot of work but they'll get a lot of love!). More updates to follow.

 

[KaleIAm]

Update! We have our first baby! There are at least 4 other eggs that have pips, a few more show movement and a couple seem quiet. This one seems to have hatched pretty far ahead of the rest of the brood, so we're going to wait until we have a couple and see if the mom will take them back if we place them in the nest; if not we're going to hand raise them (which is a lot of work but they'll get a lot of love!). More updates to follow.

What an adorable baby!

 

[Galaxyfalcon]

Update!

We tried to reintroduce the babies to the nest when #2 hatched but she seemed completely disinterested/scared of the ducklings. We left her with them for about 30 minutes this morning and watched carefully but she didn't take to them, even though we staged getting them back in the nest. It feels like she's just completely done being broody.

We have another hen who is sitting on her nest, and she immediately pipped up and started calling to them when she heard their little cries, but we don't want her to adopt them and then get off her own nest (she's being a good mom and sitting on about 6 of her own eggs).

Looks like we'll be taking care of them! I really wanted to have the satisfaction of seeing my girls out in the yard with their own ducklings waddling around, but maybe some other year.

I'm attaching a photo update! Number one is on the left. There's a number 4 who just hatched and is still in the incubator and 5 and 6 have pipped. I'm a little surprised they're spread out so far apart, about 2 every 8-12 hours or so which would have probably been hard for a mom duck to hatch on her own anyways, so maybe it's good we stepped in.

 

[Galaxyfalcon]

Another update!

So we're up to 7 ducklings. I think we're going to end up with 11 with another 2 that seem to have not made it to pip stage (I think they're dead eggs).

Duckling #5 had a hard time hatching but was finally able to do it. There he seems extra weak and he's got bits of his shell/goop stuck to him. The big concern though is that one of his eyes seems to be stuck shut. He's been in the brooder all morning but we took him out momentarily to try wiping at the eye with a gentle clean cloth and some warm water and it seems to have helped a bit but not entirely. He's back in the brooder now to finish fluffing up.

Does anyone have any advice for how to help this little guy? I don't have any saline solution but I do have some Theracyin spray. I want to try letting him dry out before trying to clean off the shell bits stuck to him, but I'm not sure what else to do for his little eye, I want to be really gentle.

Duckling #4 also has a bit of a sleepy eye although his aren't shut together. He's also been sleeping a ton more compared to the first three. Anything to watch for there?

And here's a bonus pic of everyone napping:

@Miss Lydia Sorry to tag you but wanted to see your thoughts since I've seen you answer a few similar questions with eyes in the past!