Never Hatched a Duck Egg Before. Egg pipped along time ago. Many ??s.

[FenDruadin]

Congrats on the chick!! I think you're right about it incubating before you got it--I guess in summer it stays warm enough that can happen. Anyway--the absolute best thing you can do right now is get your humidity way up in your incubator and sit tight. The more you mess with the little guy, the harder time he's going to have. He can live inside the shell like that for three or four days after pipping, so don't panic and rush him. He may easily take 36-48 hours from making the pip to hatching. As long as he is active and talking, he's probably fine. If you try to help him too soon he can bleed to death from rupturing veins in the membrane, or hatch with the yolk unabsorbed, which is highly dangerous.

So, sit tight and enjoy. It's hard to wait, but it will be sooooooo worth it!

 

[lowillobe]

He is actually under a broody hen in the laundry room. I have a humidifer going in there to try to keep it really humid.

 

[lowillobe]

 

[FenDruadin]

That baby looks pretty stuck to me. That's a huge hole. You can gently begin helping him by cracking a line around the top of the shell to help him hatch. There's a thread in the sticky at the top of the ducks page that shows you exactly how to do this. Good luck--he looks good and healthy--just needs a little help.

 

[katharinad]

Plus the opening is in the wrong spot, his head and neck should be out first. I usually peel carefully by hand and use the toothpick to work on the membrane. Stop when it bleeds and wait 6 hours. The time frame from piping to hatching is between 24-48 hours. Keep it very humid in the incubator to reduce further wrapping. A wet paper towel underneath him with help.

 

[lowillobe]

I had to take my little sister to go get braces. Before I left I moisten I removed some membrane. It had some dried looking blood but I didn't see any fresh. Then I moisten the edges and put him back under paula dean (the broody hen) I hope he will be ok while we are gone. We are at the orthodonist now.

He is still very active and cheeping. His bill is actually out of the shell and keeps yawning and streatching his wing.

And the chick pip seemed a little bigger.

This is soooo weird that the duck is hatching before the chicks. The chcik is pipping late though.

 

[FenDruadin]

Since the duck had to have started incubation before you got it, it probably is just ready earlier. Sounds like you're doing a good job with it. If there's no fresh blood, then you can keep working until he is ready to pop. I would let him come out of the shell on his own, under the hen, if possible.

And he'll probably be fine while you're gone. They can live several days inside the egg, even when stuck, so no worries.

Oh, and you don't have to worry much about the humidity since he's under a hen. She's taking care of that for you.

 

[lowillobe]

Ok, when he got back home, I went to go check on them. And I saw an empty shell. The duck hatched. He is still damp so we must have just missed him. Honestly, I'm glad I wasn't there. I would be so nervous and peek too much. He is soooooo cute. I wonder what he is?

This was the first egg we've ever hatched. There was some gunk in the bottom of the egg but he seems to be doing fine and is scurrying to the back of the momma hen!! He is still
kind of wobbly.

 

[katharinad]

How sweet, he is exhausted and will need to rest. They are so cute when they are so wobbly. One of mine fell on its back when it was one week old screaming it's head off. I ran to the brooder trying to figure what was going on and it jumped back up as soon as I was going to reach in and help it. Never happened again, but it was so funny to watch.

 

[FenDruadin]

Awesome!!! This has happened to me more times than I can count--sometimes the best thing we can do for them is to leave well enough alone, lol. Congrats, and good luck with all the babies.