Neglected duckling

I have a mixed flock and coop with about 24 laying hens (Rhode Island reds and black sexlinks), 2 roosters, 3 silkie bantams, 4 Peking ducks and 1 rapist drake. (Fun fact my barred rock rooster went after the drake when it got a little aggressive with one of the ducks… apparently the rooster doesn’t like the way the drake takes care of business)

Anyways. Last night as I was locking them in I through a mouse was in the coop, turned out to be a fresh hatch duckling. I have 4 girls sitting in eggs (mix of ducks and chickens in each nest). I monitored for a little bit and nobody was being aggressive to the duckling so I left it for nature to do it’s thing. I try to avoid getting between the natural world. This morning I went to the coop me thought the duckling died so I picked it up and as I was examining it noticed a slight sign of life, so I made a little brooder quickly and put it under a heat lamp. It was about 60 in the coop and as the little one warms up, I am seeing more movement. Part of the egg is still attached to the duckling. I haven’t heard a single chirp since I moved it, but it’s moving it’s let’s more and more. I gave it a few drop of water directly onto its beak, and am continuing to monitor. Nobody in the coop seemed to care the little fellow was freezing, but definitely heard an angry duck when she realized who was missing.
Questions to those of you with substantially more knowledge:

1. After hatching, is it common for the little fellas to be a little lethargic? This one has not stood up at all and is just moving their feet and head around a bit. It still has part of the egg on the side it is laying on.
2. With all the animals just ignoring this hatchling, should I consider it may be diseased and abandoned? Or is it just that the Peking ducks are horrible mothers?
3. How long typically from hatching to running around like they do at tractor supply during chick days?
4. Anything I should do to make sure the flock knows this little one is alright? I was going to put a brooder with heat in the coop, but am nervous the adults will try to soak up the heat lamp and run the little one(s) off.
5. Any advice on where to go from here with it? My 5 year old made it clear I have to try to keep this guy alive. And honestly, I want to see it grow up and beat up the drake lol.

Thanks in advance for any comments and thoughts.  

Hi Mark!

So I raise Muscovy ducks, so all my info is based around them and what I've experienced raising them.

My ducklings that I hatched this year were not lethargic after hatching - after a few hours of coming out of the eggs, they were running all over the place! I have another post on here about some trials with that, I'll link it - you may want to try separating your broody hens somehow, since I ran into issues with one batch hatching before the others did. The chicks seemed to trigger mothering instincts, as well as unfortunately having one baby get crushed in a different nest of eggs. It was a real mess.

With the piece of egg attached, that sounds kinda normal to me, maybe someone else can chip in? I would guess a mother will help a baby clean up, but it sounds like this one is unclaimed so might not have gotten the help it needed to get the sticky stuff off. There's all kinds of blood and mucous in the egg that is shed when they hatch.

When researching ducks, I read that muscovies are considered really good moms (and aside from the issues right at hatching, they've been great) and that some other breeds are not. You should look into that, because I feel like I remember seeing that pekings are not good mothers. You might be better off getting an incubator and hatching there, or using a good mother to hatch your babies.

This is purely speculation, but the way I look at it is that simple minded animals like this have some triggers that need to be tripped for them to go into different modes of care - you see it when they go broody, and I felt like they switched again when the ducks had hatched. It might be that one baby hatching wasn't enough to trigger that, and they're considering it an anomaly. One duckling hatching and needing different care isn't enough to abandon a nest full of eggs to take care of it.

Like I said, mine were up and running pretty quickly - hatched mostly at night, and running around underfoot by the next morning.

You might have some luck taking care of it inside, and once a big batch of babies has hatched, slip it back into the mix. In my other post I talked about that; one duckling had been abandoned (due to malnutrition I believe) and I nursed it back to being able to walk, and gave it back to the mother within a few hours. There were no issues for it being accepted back in, but you might see some if it's been a few days. You might just have one duck in your bathtub for a month. :)

To nurse my little malnutritioned guy back, I was doing the same as you, get some water in it's bill, then mix food and water into a mush, and get it eating that. After it's up and running around, raise it like normal! I set up a lamp in the bathtub with straw, and a food and water bowl, and raised my starter flock there for almost a month before I got sick of them and stuck them on the deck lol.

I see it's been a couple days since you posted, I hope everything is all right!
https://permies.com/t/161939/Bad-Experience-Broody-Muscovies
And here's my post about the trainwreck we had a month ago. :(

A good friend of mine uses his chickens to raise the ducklings...after getting it warmed and hydrated (always KEY before giving food!!!) I would offer it to ANYONE who has same aged babies, and see WHO wants it.

Likely the biggest issue was temperature; just hatched they cannot thermoregulate well so get chilled or overheated quickly.

Hopefully you will have a willing hen (duck or chicken) who will take on raising this fluffball. Good luck.

So I had a long post that got deleted because i can’t seem to care enough about my phone to charge it. The duckling had a piece of egg attached. I left it in the coop the first night and went to remove it the next morning when nobody helped this poor creature over night. It was about 55 in the coop and she was completely motionless. While removing her she opened her eye slightly and have the faintest breath, so I put her under a heat lamp as a Hail Mary, and watched what would happen. About 3-5 hour later I heard my first chirp from her. I dropped water from an eye dropped on her beak to try to hydrate her and set up a brooder on pine shavings hoping it would be easier to walk on than straw. Two day of laying in the coop, half the egg attached, i would just drop water in her beak and help get any egg that would break off without causing distress. On day 4 the duckling was finally able to stand and move and it doing good, just alone in a stock tank.
I found the egg about a foot from the nests. I wonder if the egg rolled out of the nest when it was being adjusted by one of the broody birds and possible cracked, which encouraged the duck to come out of its shell (haaaaa). This morning I finally heard a chirp coming from the broody birds and think something hatched last night. I will investigate, but I try to let the birds be birds and give them food, water, and space.
My whole flock is mixed with the brooding birds. When I found the duckling they all examined the critter on the ground but nobody was aggressive toward it, they just looked and walked away. I have a 24 laying hens, 3 bantams, 4 Peking ducks, 1 drake and 2 roosters. Should I be separating the mom/chick pairs or do you think they should continue to be okay? With the better part of a week behind us before a new bird was hatched, should I not bring tweety(black and white cat wanted into the brooder so bad I had to assign a looney toons name) or just leave her alone in the brooder? Or should I put the new chicks into the brooder? I am a strong proponent of letting nature do it’s thing (and have found good luck with this method)?

also, thanks for your replies! I’ll keep posted on this!