Question About Hatching Eggs

[Violet22]

This is probably a silly question........when a duck is sitting on her nest and the duckling starts hatching out of it's egg, does she still sit on it, or does she push it out to let it continue hatching. Does she push them out right before they start hatching?
I didn't know if they pushed eggs out of the nest because they were bad, or they are about to hatch.

Thank you!

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

She shouldn't push a pipped egg from the nest. I have noticed that hens will remove bad eggs from the nest, but not that late in the game. The duckling should stay in the egg under the hen until it has pipped and zipped. Then, it will fluff up still under the hen. As it gets fluffier and gets a little more stable on its legs, it may peek out from under the hen.

 

[Violet22]

Thank you! I wasn't sure, this being my first year dealing with this. So, it's pretty much safe to remove the eggs she has pushed out?

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

Quote:
How long has she been sitting? You can take them inside to candle them just to be sure. Sometimes if she is sitting on too many, they may roll out from under her.

 

[Violet22]

She has been sitting forever, I should have had ducklings by now. I had better candle the eggs she has rolled out and also the ones she is sitting on. I hope there are some viable ones, I really want her babies and really don't want to make her mad if she comes back to an empty nest. But I don't want her sitting there forever either on bad eggs. She has been on the nest for 2 months, she has rolled out several, some of which I have picked up, some were broken before the chicks were fully developed, but she always has new ones in the nest.