Need help With eggs that are ready to hatch today,

[josaphine32]

I have a Bantam that is always broody, I got intouch with someone for advice as i wanted to get her out of her broody state and they asked me if i would let martha my bantam sit on some duck eggs for them for 6 days as they were nearly ready to hatch 9 eggs in total, well today is the day they were meant to hatch and one broke through its shell (air hole) at 11 am this morning, the other ducklings are also calling now intermitently there has been no other progress with this first duckling as in no egg breaking out, how long should i leave it till it needs help, the hole it made was white first of all and now it is brown, the duckling is still alive at the moment and is tapping, and i have sprayed all eggs with some nice warm water so they don't stick to the side of there shell, what should i do. and can anyone please give me some good advice please

[wildwood]

This is a real toughy josaphine, something were you have to proceed by judging the chick's development. You are obviously not a stranger to hatching eggs. The only thing I would do at this stage is spray warm water as often as possible without chiiling the eggs ofcourse.

The natural process of egg incubation requires the clutch to cool down a couple of degrees in the last 2 or 3 days before hatching. The hen does this by leaving the eggs for a longer period while eating and voiding. This problem is overcome with passerine birds by the hen shifting the advanced eggs to the front, away from contact with the actual brood patch.
Your bantam has not gone through he natural incubation cycle as the sitting period was shortened and this MAY be the reason.

Helping a chick out of the shell is always a dangerous exercise but sometimes necessary. If too early, the blood vessels that are still connected to the egg may break and the chick will be dead in a few hours. if they are unable to hatch for some reason they will keep growing and even after 24 hours past their due time they may be too big for the shell and expire.

I don't think this is going to help but might help you understand what I suspect is going on. You are probably aware that most ground birds' prehatched chicks communicate with each other by peeping through the shell. This is essential so that they all hatch within a few hours of each other letting the others know that they are ready by changing the tone of the chirping. The 'early' ones that are ready will wait until no 'wrong' pitch peeping is heard. This done, they break through the airpocket at the end and start to breath air. Sometimes an advanced chick breaks through the membrane so violently that they actually already break the shell.

Hope things turn out well.

[josaphine32]

Thanks wildwood, i went down at six this morning but no chicks, i have just been down again to get martha to have a walk about and the you can see the ducklings beak popping out, i have sprayed the eggs with some nice warm water before putting martha back on so i am hoping this morning that it may come out.

i'm never doing this again, I am like a nervous wreck

[boxtops]

Let us know, josaphine - not something I know about at all, but wildwood's reply about the calling pattern is really interesting for non-chick people. Fingers crossed that your little ones will all get out ok.

[josaphine32]

Just got in and the duckling still cant get out, spoke to the man who the ducklings belong to and he said i should try and help it out, i removed loads of the outer shell and alot of the inner membrain it's really sad poor thing looks like its giving up, i tried to remove some of the membrain that was on top of it but it started to bleed so i did not try anymore in case it bleeds to death, i have squirted the membrain with warm water to see if that softens it so it can push it selfout , Martha has stood on it and made it bleed as well , I don't think its going to survive personaly but i am going to leave it alone for a few hours to see what happens

[josaphine32]

Well i got the first chick out at 12.15, It is still with us absalutely exhausted she is but looking abit more fluffy ( still cant lift her head though but i do not know how long that takes ,
The second chick which had its beak showing and had made no progress since yesterday tea time, so i intervened with her as all her face was completely dry and all the membrain was hard stuck to her face and i was worried about her eyes drying out so i made the decision to help her as well and she is still with us, there is another one chirping inside her egg but i will waite till morning to see if she breaks out or not i just read that some ducks go over a day or 2 before emerging, but I think i made the right decision in helping them out but it was very tense,

[boxtops]

You are such a diligent chick-mum Josaphine, your story is lovely, but you must be worn out already!

[josaphine32]

I know they have to take there chances, I was told by someone today that if they were on a pond they would have to take there chances, and never will i again, I have never done this before and do not know what to expect the first 2 ducklings are looking ok Martha got up and one was stuck to her and i had to cut marthas feathers to get the baby off, babys wing looked as though it was bleeding abit, but not bad , the third duckling is very very week and not doing very well at all so i am not moving martha and will see if she lasts the night i will check in the morning thay are in my daughters bedroom now, I know they are not my ducks and i never planned on doing the hatching process at all, but this was there only shot as the eggs would have been destroyed after 21 days of incubation as the man had chicks hatching early in the incubator, its a bit mean i think why go that far to then destroy them, Take it from me its not an easy thing to do and very very stressfull, i am quite highly strung at the moment, but thatnks everyone wildwood you have helped me today and thankyou for your knowledge

[wildwood]

josaphine, you have now experienced something which not everyone gets the chance to. You've done very well with your diligence and devotion. Believe me, if even one of the ducklings makes it to a week you will feel so proud you'd think you had laid the egg yourself. Hope things go well.

[askyourgran]

Josaphine please let us know how you get on, this is very interesting, how lucky you were to have wildwoods suggestions.

[josaphine32]

out of nine We had 3 little ducklings in the end at the moment they are all fit and healthy and doing well, they have just started to eat and into everything, they are so cute, and very funny little things stumbling about and very commical, Thanks all

[beejay1124]

good josaphine!