Should I help this hatchling????

[Krazyquilts]

I have a first-time broody duck whose eggs are supposed to hatch today or tomorrow. When I went out to check on her and her eggs just now, I found that an egg had been kicked out of the nest and was sitting in the middle of the floor of the duck house, and some of the egg's shell was gone but the sack (I think?) is still intact and opaque white and kind of leathery-looking. I'm pretty sure I saw the duckling inside moving under the surface. The egg is now in a separate nesting box on my deck when I can monitor it and the other ducks can't walk on it.

Should I poke an air Hole? Leave it alone? Something else? My only other broody experience went great, but these eggs are ones I ordered on EBay. (Not sure if that's pertinent.) I'm posting this in the hatching thread too.

 

[er1833]

I would. Looks like its having a hard time breaking through the membrane. <Not an expert, just what I would do>

 

[Krazyquilts]

During some frantic googling, I found this thread https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-is-dried-out-help-update-she-made-it.217070/ so I've spritzed the membrane with water to re-hydrate it and also draped a wet paper towel over a little cardboard "tent" to help keep it from drying out. I tore a tiny hole but stopped immediately because it started to bleed.

 

[chickens really]

No water!.....Use Vaseline or cooking oil with a Qtip....
Puncture a tiny hole for air... Put it under heat...

 

[mobius]

No water!.....Use Vaseline or cooking oil with a Qtip....
Puncture a tiny hole for air... Put it under heat...

Yep, some people use coconut oil...wonder if there is an internal pip, or if egg was stepped on. Is it peeping and moving?

 

[Krazyquilts]

It is moving a bit. I'll switch over to vegetable oil immediately (it's all I have, that or olive oil). Just curious - why use oil over water?

I've set up a brooder in my living room with a heat lamp and I'm going to move the egg in there. I also checked on the rest of the eggs when the broody duck got up to go help the other ducks destroy the garden and I found another egg that I think has pipped so I've put that one with the first because now I don't really trust this broody.

 

[mobius]

Excellent! and I wish I had an answer about water but I have seen the posts about oil in many other threads...not expert here, sry, just concerned chicken owner.

 

[Krazyquilts]

I've swabbed the membrane with vegetable oil and that works a lot better than the water did. It's been several minutes and the membrane has still remained nice and moist. I checked it very thoroughly and couldn't find any hole? pipping? in the membrane except the one I made.

About a week ago, I found an egg kicked out of the nest and the tapered end was crushed inward. Way too much damage for it to hatch, so I opened it to try to determine what had gone wrong and the shell was really thin - so I wonder if this egg's shell has the same problem?

Here's an updated pic of the two eggs in a brooder under the heat lamp (I covered them back up with straw after taking the picture.) You can see the small tear I made in the membrane on the front end of the egg. I'm definitely not going to try to remove any membrane because it had started bleeding a little when I first first did.

I haven't heard any peeping from either one but they are both moving.

 

[mobius]

Great pic and best of luck to you...assisted hatching is hard....breathe. You doing great!

 

[Krazyquilts]

Great pic and best of luck to you...assisted hatching is hard....breathe. You doing great!

Thanks so much! I'm trying to get the house packed up to move in two weeks so I really didn't need the added stress of an "interesting" hatching. I was so hoping that this broody (a year-old Cayuga) would do as well as my Welsh Harlequin did a few months ago. Welshie was a great broody nest-sitter and is the fiercest little duck momma you can imagine! Of course, right before moving isn't exactly when I would have chosen to have 2.5 of my ducks go broody either. Ah well, maybe they are trying to help populate the new farm?