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!

 

[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!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Sure looks like he’s giving up. All you can do now is just make sure no one messes with him. I doubt he’s in pain doesn’t look like it. I’d say failure to thrive possibly.

 

[Galaxyfalcon]

Hello! I just wanted to update on how everyone is doing! @Miss Lydia in your last photo, do your ducks play with the ball you have hanging up? I was thinking about getting ours some toys for them to play with.

Everyone is doing really good! I always forget how quickly they grow. As of Saturday everyone is two weeks old! Most of the little peeps are starting to change into little awkward quacks. They're living outside in the duck run in a fenced off area full time now, although we do provide some heat at night for now. They have lots of supervised yard playtime where they can come out of the duck run area and run around the yard and interact with the other ducks at a distance (the adults are too scared of them to come close).



They don't follow us as well as the other ducks we've raised (too many we think so they're more independent as a flock) but we've already trained them to come to the shake-shake sound of the mealworm can so that helps!

Here's momma duck (Herman, front) and the dad's (we think they both contributed) in the back (Neptune on the left, Cassie 'Cassiopeia' on the right).




And here are some photos of the little ones!

Here's 5; we didn't see any improvements to his eye really, and we don't have good vet services in the area. I talked to an avian wildlife rehab a couple hours away and she said we were doing everything we could. At this point I think the eye may just be a birth defect. Looks 100% normal on the other side. 5 is super friendly and is still usually the first one to come back after play time to sit with/on you.



Here's number 3:



And number 6 who I think is a girl but still not sure:



Here's number 1 lounging a couple of days ago:



Little number 10!


Number 11. He walks around constantly making peeping sounds; he's done it since he was a baby. At first they sounded like "panic peeps" but we just think it's a weird quirk of his now.


I'll try to snap some photos of the rest of the bunch later!

On another note, we've got a massive heat wave coming in. It got up to 98*F today and by Sunday it will be 112*F and we expect multiple days of 100+ weather. Normally when we had our other young ducks we would bring them inside during extreme heat days, but with this brood there's simply too many to do that. Does anyone have any advice on how to keep them cool? They're getting multiple cold water refreshes each day and they've got water they can get in and sit/stand in. They're already panting with temps in the 90s so I'm worried about them in 100+ weather, especially over the weekend and early next week.

@KaleIAm

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[Miss Lydia]

That picture is adorable Do you have any terramycin eye ointment? if you have some Neosporin you could take a little and just go around the eye. Triple antibiotic.

https://www.healthline.com/health/make-your-own-saline-solution

I do have Theracyn and also Veterycin I have used the Vetercyn in the eyes but never Theracyn

 

[Miss Lydia]

They are precioius. Congrats on a great hatch.
As for #4 have you tried using a dropper and putting tiny drops of Nutri Drench right inside the bill? let him swallow then try again? or dribble it along his bill, give it to him straight also very safe.

 

[Galaxyfalcon]

They are precioius. Congrats on a great hatch.
As for #4 have you tried using a dropper and putting tiny drops of Nutri Drench right inside the bill? let him swallow then try again? or dribble it along his bill, give it to him straight also very safe.

Thank you! They're all very friendly. It seems the "special" ones are the friendliest...4 and 5 both love to chat and like to be around us the most it seems so far! Everyone else is getting the zoomies and learning that water is fun. 1, 2, and 3 are already noticeably bigger.

We've been giving him a little nutri-drench every few hours, not so much dribbling it in his mouth so much as getting it on his bill and letting him slurp up a little. He's been eating a little bit more and also drinking, but not nearly as much as the others. I'm just worried because neither of us have had a duckling so drained-looking before...he just constantly looks exhausted. He also keeps his eyes half-shut most of the time although I have seen him open them pretty far, it's almost like he's walking around in his sleep. I hope he pulls through, I hate seeing little ones suffer! If you or anyone have any more ideas don't hesitate to share them.

 

[Galaxyfalcon]

There could be just hard to know for sure, hopefully today you'll see more improvement.
When I ordered Runner ducklings in the mail in 2019 2nd time to ever have live birds come in the mail. Went and picked them up at the PO all 4 were perky and happy, then after a few days 2 of them just stopped eating I tried all I could think of but lost those 2 and hatchery called it shipping stress, I called it heartbreaking, anyway I started scrambling eggs every morning for the 2 that were still acting okay they loved them. Actually, I cooked them in the microwave. Try the scrambled egg and see if it helps perk #4 up. Sure can't hurt.
Sure pulling for this little one, they can sure waddle into our hearts fast.

That sounds really sad...I've never ordered from mail just because I don't think my heart could take it. I think we might try the scrambled egg later today just so we have tried everything.

#4 still isn't doing well, he seemed to be eating and drinking even less than yesterday, but just before sitting down I actually saw him toddle his way over to food and water and get a bit of both, so he does seem to be eating a very tiny amount. There's some nutri-drench in the duckling water, but we're trying to drop some in/on his bill 3-5 times a day and see if he can take any. We stopped trying to force his bill open because he gets really distress and cries, and if he's going to pass we'd rather not have him distressed. We've been getting a little on his bill and he'll slurp up a little but it must taste pretty bad.

#5 is doing pretty good, he has a lot of energy and is really friendly. Most of the dried egg-stuff has washed off, although he still has some on his head. He can get his eye about half open but he's still squinting with it. We started out using teramycin and are currently spraying his eye / eye area with a little vertricyn pink eye spray which seems to have helped break down some of the dried mucus and stuff around his head. He can definitely see out of the eye but it's still half-shut, so we're going to keep trying and see how it goes.

Everyone else is doing really good. Duckling #10 just hatched this morning and #11 is chirping happily and about to hatch! They were so spread out, they've been hatching since wednesday evening. I have no idea how she would have hatched them all in the wild (I guess she wouldn't have). I'm glad everyone is doing well for the most part, I just feel really bad about 4 and 5. 4 loves to be held so much, I'll be really sad if he goes.