Pipping confusion

[KCNC06]

That's what I was thinking. As long as the hole is getting bigger it probably doesn't matter what he's doing to enlarge it. Right? I don't really understand how he could be booty bumping his way out but whatever works for him.

 

[KCNC06]

I probably should have asked earlier, do I need to be worried about Bacon Bits' bit of crusty membrane that got stuck to his wing/body? I figured it would probably flake off on its own or wash off when he goes for a splash in the shower in a few days. But then realized I should probably ask because I don't know about things like that. I didn't think I should mess with it before he dries off since hatching seems pretty dang traumatic so I didn't want to traumatize him more than necessary.
Here's a picture of the crusty membrane:

 

[Miss Lydia]

What a cutie crust an all! You could try a qtip an warm water or just wait till he gets his first bath.

 

[KCNC06]

I definitely think he's adorable! I didn't think he looked too much smaller than a "normal" duckling. Considering how small those eggs were anyway. He is a bit smaller than Eggwyn, but Eggwyn hatched Tuesday afternoon and is a Pekin. I'm not sure if Pekin ducklings are normally bigger than other breeds. I haven't compared our adults side by side, but I didn't think our Cayuga, Khaki and Rouen adults were much smaller than the Pekins.

 

[Miss Lydia]

How precious.I've never seen in person a newly hatch Pekin but I do know they grow super fast. I’d like to rec you get them started on some Nutritional yeast sprinkled over their feed 1 Tab to each cup of feed All waterfowl babies need this niacin but Pekins especially leg strength and health is very important.

 

[KCNC06]

Eggwyn was our 10th Pekin duckling since mid-June. The other 9 have been getting nutritional yeast sprinkled on their food. I'm still surprised by the smell every time I add it to their food. It reminds me of...powdered cheese I think. I've also been trying to choose treats with a good amount of niacin for the older ones. Eggwyn hasn't really figured out eating quite yet. He pecks at stuff but doesn't really seem to eat much. At 2 days old I wasn't too worried though. I'll probably try some fine chopped hard-boiled eggs if he doesn't get it by tomorrow morning. That worked with a few of the others.

 

[Miss Lydia]

10th Pekin that’s amazing I’d love to see a pic of your gang when you have time. And great to hear your using the NY too. I have 6 week old Runners I am giving it to and I also feed it to my adults. It does have a cheezy smell I seen others say the sprinkle it over popcorn I’ve never tried that. My Runners devoured scrambled eggs when they first hatched. I have Bantam chickens so it was easy to get an egg their size. They still love scrambled eggs

 

[KCNC06]

We've had a bantam house hen for a few months. The Roo's tore her up really bad. I've seen them with feathers plucked, but her back was torn open. One patch didn't even have enough skin around it to pull back together. It was just raw "meat" exposed on her back. I 100% expected her to die because I couldn't imagine her being able to grow that much skin back. It took a long time for her to heal and I didn't want her outside with that much skin missing, so she turned into a house hen. Now she just assumed this is where she sleeps. She goes outside during the day. Free-ranges, visits the ducks, visits her old flock, pecks around in the garden, then when she's ready to come in for the night, she comes up to a door and stands there waiting like a weird little dog or something.
Anyway, I used her eggs to hard-boil for the ducklings. I use a...chopper thing to chop the egg into super fine bits so I can mix it in with the chick crumbles. I learned quickly that if I give them plain egg, they pretend they can't eat their crumbles for whatever reason. If the egg bits are tiny and mixed with the crumbles, they can't pick the egg bits out.

Now that both Eggies are hatched and fluffed up, I figured I'd share a picture. I'm guessing they must be half Cayuga with the solid black legs and feet but I'm not sure if the other half is Khaki Campbell or Rouen. Prudence (Egg 2) has a fairly solid black bill, Desmond's (Egg 1) bill is black on top and tan on the bottom. Desmond also has a bigger yellow bib.

 

[KCNC06]

One more question...which again, is probably silly or weird but I've never seen behavior like this before. Eggwyn, the Pekin who hatched Tuesday evening (7/27) seems extra mean with the other two (hatched yesterday). I've had ducklings that were a day or two apart in hatch times before but can't remember any of them pecking at the others as much as Eggwyn is. They try to get away from him, huddle up together, and peep very loudly when he bites their face and gets the entire bill in his bill or when he bites their toes. They peck back a little but give up pretty quickly.
Is he just a jerk or is he maybe just excited to have someone to play with since he spent a day alone? (I'm not counting the first 24 hrs since he mostly slept during that time.) I have 2 or 3 more Pekin eggs that pipped externally overnight and another is tapping away. I'm a little worried about what I'm going to do with them if Eggwyn keeps up this bullying.

 

[Miss Lydia]

You might want to give Eggwyn his own space in the brooder for a couple days and just do supervised visits with them all together. When our Runners were 3 weeks old another Runner hatched and we tried putting the little one in once it was strong they wanted nothing to do with him. So I made a place for the newly hatched in the same brooder made a barrier out of hardware cloth and wrapped the edges in gorilla tape the littlest stayed in there if I couldn’t watch it took 3 days then they were inseparable. Till they were accepting if one got to be too much for the little I’d put my hand between to distract the bully. What o
Precious little ones!