Urgent! Do I need to intervene?

[Hfox1]

This is my cayuga’s (and my) first time hatching eggs. I’m letting her do it on her own. We had a couple babies hatch over the past couple nights, and this little one has been trying to do so since at least this morning. Im not sure when pipping began, but I noticed around 7 am the baby’s bill had broken through the egg. It’s now going on 1 am the next morning and progress has slowed since this afternoon. The baby appears to be dry and there is brown on the membrane, assuming there was blood. The majority of the egg shell has broken off, while the membrane remains. The baby is still moving and chirping. What are my next steps here? Do I intervene, or do I just let it do it’s thing? I’m starting to become pretty concerned but I could just be a paranoid first-time duck mama. Thank you in advance for any help/tips!

 

[TheDuckGuy]

This is my cayuga’s (and my) first time hatching eggs. I’m letting her do it on her own. We had a couple babies hatch over the past couple nights, and this little one has been trying to do so since at least this morning. Im not sure when pipping began, but I noticed around 7 am the baby’s bill had broken through the egg. It’s now going on 1 am the next morning and progress has slowed since this afternoon. The baby appears to be dry and there is brown on the membrane, assuming there was blood. The majority of the egg shell has broken off, while the membrane remains. The baby is still moving and chirping. What are my next steps here? Do I intervene, or do I just let it do it’s thing? I’m starting to become pretty concerned but I could just be a paranoid first-time duck mama. Thank you in advance for any help/tips!

I say intervene

 

[yakitori]

Is she making chewing yawning motions? if so, her yolk isn’t absorbed and you’ll be intervening too early. Usually when they’re ready to hatch, thwy will start chirping and struggling.

Eitherway, I would apply some coconut oil (warmed to a liquid) carefully to the membrane so you can see wether there are still blood vessels.

With that much shell gone, I’m not sure if she’ll be able to push her way out and you may need to do a full assist.

if you dont see any blood vessels, you can slowly and carefully start working away at the inner membrane starting from around her head. if she bleeds, use a tissue to blot the bleeding spot, and stop the assist. apply coconut oil to any mew exposed membrane, wait a few hours before trying again.

do you have an incubator?

I highly recommend reading this thread before doing any kind of assist...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/step-by-step-guide-to-assisted-hatching.64660/

 

[yakitori]

Oh, and with the dry membrane, be very careful and make sure to fully soften it before working it away from the chick. If you don’t you run the risk of tearing her skin.

 

[Hfox1]

Is she making chewing yawning motions? if so, her yolk isn’t absorbed and you’ll be intervening too early. Usually when they’re ready to hatch, thwy will start chirping and struggling.

Eitherway, I would apply some coconut oil (warmed to a liquid) carefully to the membrane so you can see wether there are still blood vessels.

With that much shell gone, I’m not sure if she’ll be able to push her way out and you may need to do a full assist.

if you dont see any blood vessels, you can slowly and carefully start working away at the inner membrane starting from around her head. if she bleeds, use a tissue to blot the bleeding spot, and stop the assist. apply coconut oil to any mew exposed membrane, wait a few hours before trying again.

do you have an incubator?

I highly recommend reading this thread before doing any kind of assist...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/step-by-step-guide-to-assisted-hatching.64660/

Thank you so much, this is very informative. Upon applying coconut oil, it seems as though neither the yolk nor the blood vessels have been fully absorbed. I did not begin to assist at this time and the egg is back with mama, as I do not have an incubator. I’ll continue to check up periodically throughout the night and while my duck mama mind will continue to wander, I know what’s meant to be will be for this little one.

 

[yakitori]

Thank you so much, this is very informative. Upon applying coconut oil, it seems as though neither the yolk nor the blood vessels have been fully absorbed. I did not begin to assist at this time and the egg is back with mama, as I do not have an incubator. I’ll continue to check up periodically throughout the night and while my duck mama mind will continue to wander, I know what’s meant to be will be for this little one.

Please update us!
Fingers crossed that all will go well

 

[Mellowmalt]

I'd put in a vote for intervening however I do have to add a disclaimer that every single chick I have ever tried to help has ultimately not made it.

I know people say intervene all the time, others say if they are too weak to even hatch by themselves it isn't worth helping out.

What happens when people intervene, do the chicks die anyway, just a bit later on or do some actually turn into completely healthy chicks after failing to hatch properly?

I don't know, in theory a chick could be completley healthy and get stuck hatching but in my eperience if it has difficulty it isn't 100% healthy.

 

[Sierra67]

I had to intervene with 3 out of 4 of my cayuga ducklings due to incubator failure, they’re 3 weeks old now and all doing great, besides the only one that hatched by himself that had a messed foot and ended up dying later on about a week later.

 

[HappyClucker7]

How is the baby? Did she/he hatch successfully?

 

[Mellowmalt]

I had to intervene with 3 out of 4 of my cayuga ducklings due to incubator failure, they’re 3 weeks old now and all doing great, besides the only one that hatched by himself that had a messed foot and ended up dying later on about a week later.

thx for the feedback sierra but it doesn't change much to change my opinion. We would need hundreds of trials to make an accurate assessment, I will stick to my theory.
It sounds like your first one hatched early and thus didn't make it. If he hatched early then it could be that the others hatched on time and didn't need assisting.
It's fun to assist and I'd guess as a result assisting is done far too often when it isn't even needed which is why it is said so often not to do it.
So if a chick gets assisted but would have hatched unassisted by itself too that doesn't really count but is hard to assess.