My First Incubator Hatch! Is Everything OK?

Here are the 5 Black Swede/Welsh Harlequin cross eggs. Day 28! The one with some shell removed, I removed, fearing the duckling would suffocate. It was already cracked a little. This just started, at around 9:00 am. The humidity is raised (I raised it the day before yesterday, but the directions say it should have been raised 5 days ago. Do these look good? Should I help them out? Thanks-

From the pic it looks like at least two of them (including the one you helped a little) are trying to hatch out of the small end of the egg (away from the air cell). This is not normal. Where those dark spots have formed under the shell is where they are trying to pip and break out. Sometimes they can hatch out on their own when they are upside down like that, but sometimes they do need help. Them drowning in the fluid left inside their egg is the biggest danger since they are not in the air cell at the other end like they should be.

Now, don't freak out just yet! How many hours has it been since those dark spots appeared under the shell (and that first one made the little crack)? Ducklings take a long time to hatch (around two days for the whole process), so there is no rush at the moment.

Assisting them to hatch is a very delicate and long process, it cannot be rushed. I recommend reading through this tutorial and scrolling down to the section called "Malpositions":

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/step-by-step-guide-to-assisted-hatching

There is ALOT of information there and you just want to take things one step at a time, but first you have to give them at least 24 hours to do something on their own and make some sort of progress before you attempt to help out any more. If you help them out too soon the yolk won't be absorbed yet and/or blood vessels can accidentally be severed which will cause them to bleed out. So, just read through the link and be prepared in case you have to help them. It's always best for them to hatch out on their own, assisting is only as a last resort. Even then there is no guarantee they will make it.

Let's just hope your guys will make it out ok on their own and you don't have to intervene.

Thank you for your help and the link. Here is a little more background info- the eggs may have been more than a week old before I started incubation, and, the egg turner on the incubator wasn't working for the first 2-3 days before I noticed it and fixed it. Maybe this is why the embryo position is off.

kaumlauf said:

Thank you for your help and the link. Here is a little more background info- the eggs may have been more than a week old before I started incubation, and, the egg turner on the incubator wasn't working for the first 2-3 days before I noticed it and fixed it. Maybe this is why the embryo position is off.

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Ok, thanks for the info! Eggs more than 10 days old risk lower hatch rates, and them not being turned the first few days can also lower your hatch rate as well. That may have been what happened here, but we all live and learn. For now just focus on reading up on how/when to help these guys if they need you to. Good luck and please keep us updated!

You bet!

It's day 2 of the hatching process, and 2 more are starting to pip. Both have cracked the shell. Now there are 3 beginning their awakening. The first one is still where she was 24 hours ago, no change. She's still breathing and making little chirps occaisionally. I pulled some of the shell away (about 2 square inches around the hole she made.and kept the membrane intact. Should I pull more shell away? I think the shells are very hard.

kaumlauf said:

It's day 2 of the hatching process, and 2 more are starting to pip. Both have cracked the shell. Now there are 3 beginning their awakening. The first one is still where she was 24 hours ago, no change. She's still breathing and making little chirps occaisionally. I pulled some of the shell away (about 2 square inches around the hole she made.and kept the membrane intact. Should I pull more shell away? I think the shells are very hard.

Click to expand...

Duck shells are pretty hard, but it's really the membranes under the shell you have to keep an eye on. If they are dried out they will turn a tan/brown color, in that case you'll want to wet those with a little warm water and a q-tip. Just be sure not to get any water into the duckling's bill. You also need to keep en eye on the blood vessels in the clear membrane that is under that one. So just under the shell there is a white outer membrane (the one that will turn brown if getting dried out) and then there is a clear inner membrane that contains the blood vessels. Once those blood vessels shrink and basically disappear, the duckling is ready to hatch and you'll want to help them out a little more at that time. Can you see inside how that clear membrane and blood vessels look on those two that are hatching from the wrong end? They should've made some progress by now and may need a little help, just be very careful and wait until those blood vessels have drained from the membrane.

There are blood vessels visible on the one with the most progress (1st one). It is also very gooey. The other two have not broken through the membrane yet. Eggs 1 +2 are mispositioned, and #3 is in the regular position. All 3 have sounds of chirping and movement still. I am keeping the membranes dampened as they are browning.

Ok, if they are gooey then your humidity may have been too high during incubation and they have retained too much fluid inside the egg. At any rate, if you can prop them up a little so the hole where they are hatching out of is up a little higher than the rest of the egg you can help make sure none of that goo gets into their bills. They can actually drown if that happens.

I wouldn't help them anymore until those blood vessels have shrunken down and are virtually gone. They need to finish absorbing the yolk in there and the blood from those vessels, then they will be ready to come out. All of that happens at the same time, so once those blood vessels are gone, the yolk is also absorbed and it's time to come out.

The problem with malpositioned ducklings is they start to break out of the shell too early because they would normally only be breaking into the air cell at that time. But since they are on the opposite end of the egg, they end up breaking through the shell instead. This just means they still need more time to finish developing inside before they are ready to come out (typically an extra day). I hope all that made sense.

It's bedtime here in Sweden, so I will have to go, but I wish you good luck! Keep up with the updates, ok?

Thank you very much Swedish Duck Master. This has been most helpful. It's bedtime now for me. Will see what surprises await in the incubator tomorrow. Good night.