If you help it out it could make it to where it won't be able to walk. They have to break out of their shell themselves, I don't know how it works, but somehow it strenghthens their little legs and they needto break out of that shell on their own. It is for their own good. It might not hurt to try to peel off a little of the egg, but don't peel off too much...

if not too late... don't have to separate if you have a large enough pen drake shouldn't attack them, but be on guard for possibility our experience is those eggs hatch on the morning of the 28th day of incubating mother duck hen is efficient and will stay on the nest with the ducklings until the last one is hatched or if separated by more than 24 hours will take off the ducklings and leave any eggs on the nest. Make sure if ducklings have access to water they also have a ramp so they can climb out. The adult ducks won't help them and their shorter legs don't either. It is easier for them to enter than get out. Improvise with what you have making sure that it's not a slick surface. Blocks of wood screwed or nailed together on either side of the pool like a step up & over & down work as does wire covered wood ramps. Wet wood is slick for them and slimes up quickly in a duck environment. Watch out for sharp wire edges that could injure them. Fluffy down isn't as efficient as preened adult feathers, so they will get wet and need to dry off.

It's been a while since the last post on this subject but I am in need of some imformation regarding a chicken hatching duck eggs. I bought twelve fertile mixed breed duck eggs off of ebay hoping to get my broody jersey giant hen to maybe hatch some out. All's fine so far; she's doing her job (it's only been a few days). She's four years old and has never even seen a rooster only her bunk mate she was raised with (a red sex-link). what I need to know first is why is she exibiting this behavior now and to such an extreme that she's been in the nesting box almost constantly for the last month and a half. Is she going to quit on me before any of the six eggs can hatch? The second thing I need to know is how successful am I going to be hatching out any of the remaining six in my homemade incubator when I am having trouble maintaining a constant temperature and humidity at least the first three days (I think I got a handle on it now) but has the damage already been done (too soon to candle). What are my chances as opposed to Isabel's (the hen) in getting any duck babies to hatch? Oh, one more thing about Isabel, she is a free range hen who would only come in the coop to eat and put herself to bed at nightfall and all I had to do is be there to close the door. Now she acts broody and strange when she once was a chatty, personable, happy girl. Was this the wrong tact to take, giving her fertile eggs? The reason I choose duck eggs is I didn't want to take the chance of getting a rooster (don't like 'em).

Well that's true, not everybody reading this is in the same temperate range as myself. Which is good, because then this WILL be a timely reminder that might keep them from repeating my mistakes. The boxes we have up were built to spec from a booklet put out by the Illinois Dept. of Conservation, and it's possible that the mesh idea just represents their thinking at the time. Can't recall what kind of lumber we used but it wasn't rough-cut but really quite slick. I remember thinking that when we decided to build new ones in a few years, I was going to opt for roughing the surface instead of the mesh...the way it would naturally be. We do use hardwood chips in the bottoms of ours, something like 4 inches of them if I recall. I simply go by what I am told when I build a nesting box, so I'm the wrong person to ask for construction pointers. However, your house looks like a well-built box, Konrad, and I think I also recall seeing some wonderful other pics of your handiwork in other threads...owls, maybe? You seem to do excellent work!! Maybe I should give you a call when my current boxes need replacements! Now, whether or not the intended residents will use them is another matter. You say you put your house up last year? It took two or three seasons for the ducks to accept our sites, and I was thinking I had overlooked an important detail somewhere when they finally showed up. The bat house we put up never HAS had any bats in it, and our bluebird boxes in any given year will have either nuthatches, chickadees (weird), wrens, flying squirrels, tree frogs, bluebirds (imagine that) or even totally go unused. So you may be hoping for ducks and wind up with something completely unexpected, like your bees. I'd be happy to have a hive in one of my boxes, but I would certainly want to put up an additional duck box or two to make up for it. It's all according to what you personally want to do. Happily I don't have any problems with sparrows or starlings, but all other comers are welcome. Good luck with your duck efforts...keep me posted if they do show up!