Can a cracked mallardduck egg survive

[Emma lee]

I have 11 mallard duck eggs in an incubator and they are14 days old.. It smelled bad in there so I though one of the eggs was rotten ! I got the smelliest egg an went outside to crack it open and see If it really was a rotten egg .. I bent down and lightly cracked it on the pavement and the duck. Starting squirmin inside!? A little bit of yolk leaked out and I put it back inside the incubator.. The yolk dried up an kinda covers the crack... Any advice ? Will this duck die because of the crack and how will I know when it's dead

[maxollie]

Since the eggs have only incubated for 14 days, I would say the little chick won't survive. I believe the incubating time for duck eggs is approximately 21-28 days, and the embryo would not be fully developed as yet. Is your incubator programmed correctly as far as temperature is concerned? I do believe there will be a rather pungent smell of the eggs. I'm not sure that an incubator should be opened up when the eggs are developing, due to the flux in temperature when you open it up.

Personally, if I were you, I would immediately take that egg that was cracked out of the incubator and discard it. And further, I wouldn't ever crack an egg that has a developing embryo in it, to see what is inside.

Perhaps someoneelse will stop by and give you their opinion and thoughts in this regard.