Make Way for Duckling

We have had two female Indian Runner ducks sitting on a shared nest for awhile now.  Last week, while the girls were swimming in the pond, I snuck out to their nest and counted 21 eggs in their possession.  We knew that some of the eggs were fertile (we have a male Runner who really likes his girls), but it was anyone's guess how many ducklings would hatch.

Well, two days ago we got our answer.  Our proud momma ducks came marching out of the brush with three babies.  Yep, that's it.  Just three.  I cannot say that we were too disappointed, as 21 ducklings would overwhelm any farm.  But I was a bit surprised that there weren't more.

So, while the mommas paraded their babies around the barnyard, I went up to check the nest.  Sure enough, most of the eggs were infertile.  I could tell this by holding each egg up to the sun.  If it was just a thick liquid, I knew it had never grown.  I tossed those further out into the brush.  There were two eggs that had developed all the way, but had not hatched.

I know the rule about never helping a baby hatch, but I couldn't help myself.  What if the mommas had just given up a little too soon?  What if these two babies were just a few hours from hatching and were going to wake up to the world alone?  I had to try to help.

The first baby was already dead.  It looked like it had pipped (broken the shell) but then must've run out of energy and died in the shell.  I said a little prayer and tossed it into the brush.  I then started to open the second one.  I didn't hold much hope, because this little one hadn't even pipped.  But when I opened the shell, it was breathing!

I quickly removed the remainder of the shell, probably a little too quickly as I detached a major vein in the shell and the baby began to bleed.  It looked like some of the yolk sac had yet to absorb completely into the baby's body as well.  Things didn't look good.

I yelled to M that I needed some help.  I had to climb through the barbed wire fence and didn't want to do it with the baby in my hands so I gave it to him (he ran inside and got rubber gloves first because he didn't want to touch the blood).  I climbed through the fence and we brought the baby inside.

First thing I did was wash her off in warm water.  Then I dried her quickly with the hair dryer.  I wanted to make sure she stayed warm.  I didn't completely dry her, but enough to give her a good start.  Then I set her up on a heating pad with a towel wrapped around her and a heat lamp above.  I eventually turned off the heating pad as the heat lamp seemed to be enough.

Baby duckling just after hatching.

For the first night, the baby flopped around every once in awhile.  But with no apparent control.  It peeped a lot.  I fed it sugar water through a pipette and it drank every bit.  I said a prayer before bed that God would take her peacefully if she needed to go.  I honestly didn't expect her to make it through the night.

In the morning, she was up and much more alert than the day before.  She could hold her head up and when I placed her beak in a dish of water, she cupped it up and swallowed like a big duck would.  She still didn't have a lot of motor control, but she was starting to move around.  She did, however, make it very clear that she would prefer to be held than left in a box.  I spent much of the morning with her tucked into my chest.

I thought I might try to reintroduce her to her mommas, but when we brought her outside, she just didn't have the stamina to keep up with the other ducklings.  She tried, but the other babies could run so much further and faster, she would eventually just sit down and wait.  We brought her back inside and figured we needed to give her more time to get strong.

By the evening, the box on the counter wasn't holding her in.  J was home with her for awhile and he found her at his feet in the office.  He picked her up, scolded her, and put her back in her box on the counter.   He walked back into the office and by the time he sat down, here comes the little duckling waddling and peeping its way into the office (this time followed by our dog...nosing it carefully).

J scolded her again, put her back in the box and built up the sides a little with a towel.  But by the time he was back in the office, sure enough, this little duckling was on her way to him.  This time, the cat was following her...and not in a "watch and wait" sort of manner...he was stalking).  J quickly picked her up, put her back in the box, and this time, covered the box with a towel.  The baby wasn't happy about this, but she couldn't escape.  When I got home, the duckling spent some quality time on my shoulder, but then went back in the box for the night.

This morning, the baby was even more alert and moving than ever.  She was completely upright and seemed in control of her movements.  She certainly knew that she wanted out of the box.  I held her for a bit, but I wanted my coffee and put her down on the floor in the kitchen.  She followed my feet everywhere I went, peeping madly the whole time.  I finally gave up and decided to take her outside.

Immediately, I was overrun with goats (they are having a hard time staying in their pen).  It is not particularly conducive to introducing a baby to its mommas for the first time, but I tried to ignore the goats.  When the momma ducks came up to me (thinking I would feed them), I set the baby down in front of them.  The baby didn't seem to want anything to do with it and ran in circles, peeping.  It didn't help that several of the goats had to nose her to see what she was.  Eventually, the mommas ran back down to the pond to get their other babies.

Two mommas and four babies.
Our preemie is the last in line.

I followed and tried to scare the goats off of my back.  I set the baby down again, this time near her siblings.  She still didn't seem to happy about it.  The mommas kept quacking quietly at her and tried to herd her into the group.  She didn't like it much, but she eventually accepted it.  I watched from quite a distance for at least ten mintues...trying to keep the goats from investigating.  The baby seemed to be able to keep up ok.  She rested a bit more than the others, but the mommas were encouraging and kept her with the group.  As I began to walk back to the house, I watched our little preemie duckling taking her first swim in the pond.  She took to it like a duck to water.  I think she'll do just fine.