We had two from the first batch that really struggled to get out. Basically, they sat there for nearly 24 hours, so the Moose and I performed emergency surgery. We carefully chipped the shell away in a complete circle starting and ending where they originally pipped through. Then we worked on the white membrane. We learned that you need to leave the clear membrane which holds the blood vessels alone if possible. They could bleed to death if this is torn away from their bodies too soon. We placed a wet cloth around the shell to help moisten the membrane still attached.
We left them in the incubator overnight to see if they would make it. It didn't look good. We figured at least we gave them a fighting chance.
We were surprised to see them both up and about this morning! They were numbers 14 and 15. They're getting their "sea legs" and starting to run around with the rest of the Rascals.
Number 16 also showed up last night from the second batch, and she's a little weak. We have her separated from the group. I used my salad spinner basket. Seems to do the trick! Now the other 15 are trying to figure out how to get in there! (sorry the picture is so red, it's their heat lamp giving off that wonderful glow) UPDATE: we just lost number 16, just too weak.
Wow and I only had to do one duck.
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