Advice Needed for hatching Duck Eggs

[Mrs Rusty]

Hi there, I am new here and new to hatching. We have 8 viable eggs in an incubator and on day 27. 7 of them internally pipped and then almost 48 hours ago externally pipped. Yesterday one of them cracked the shell around 12 hours ago at the wrong end. Deciding to let nature takes it course and not wanting to lift the lid on the incubator we left them to it. I’ve been up twice in the night to nothing, no movement. The hole isn’t big enough to see inside, but with no progress does this mean something may have gone wrong? Is there anything that can be done at this point? I’m really worried and hardly slept all night. I’ll post a pic as that may say more than I can describe. Thanks for any advice you can offer. Also nothing more from the other eggs either.

 

[SilverBirds]

Welcome to BYC!
Babies that have pipped on the wrong egg can almost always hatch on their own. Just watch and wait for now.

Waterfowl tend to take longer to hatch then chickens due to the tougher shells. If no progress is made in 48 hours after pipping you can start to investigate.

 

[Mrs Rusty]

Welcome to BYC!
Babies that have pipped on the wrong egg can almost always hatch on their own. Just watch and wait for now.

Waterfowl tend to take longer to hatch then chickens due to the tougher shells. If no progress is made in 48 hours after pipping you can start to investigate.

That’s a relief and I really hope this is the case. I’m worried he is shrink wrapped. The hole isn’t big enough to tell, but there is sporadic movement. It’s the egg in the middle pic by the way.

 

[SilverBirds]

That’s a relief and I really hope this is the case. I’m worried he is shrink wrapped. The hole isn’t big enough to tell, but there is sporadic movement. It’s the egg in the middle pic by the way.

If it was shrink wrapped the membrane would be tough and dry and yellow brown in color. A little yellow around the pip is normal, so don't confuse that as shrink wrapping. As long as your humidity is kept up and stable shrink wrapping shouldn't be an issue.

 

[casportpony]

How are they doing? Any progress?

 

[Mrs Rusty]

I think I have a double thread, sorry about that. I wasn’t sure what I was doing and there are a couple of comments on the other one. Two have hatched and a third on the way, the one in question hasn’t progressed, but it’s coming up to 24 hours being like that. I’m inclined to leave it, but it’s really stressful and hard to know what the best course of action is being new to this. It’s such a shame.

 

[casportpony]

I've merged your two threads.

So today is day 28, two have hatched, & a third is progressing, and the fourth is not progressing but is externally pipped? What about the other three?

 

[Mrs Rusty]

Good morning, so we now have 6 out of 8 hatched, including the one that had pipped the wrong end. We were on the verge of assisting, but he was successful before we went to bed at 1am thankfully. We’ve moved 5 of them to the brooder as there really was no room in the incubator. The latest is in the incubator (hatched in the night) - hoping to leave him in there until the last two have hatched. I’m exhausted but happy.

 

[SilverBirds]

Good morning, so we now have 6 out of 8 hatched, including the one that had pipped the wrong end. We were on the verge of assisting, but he was successful before we went to bed at 1am thankfully. We’ve moved 5 of them to the brooder as there really was no room in the incubator. The latest is in the incubator (hatched in the night) - hoping to leave him in there until the last two have hatched. I’m exhausted but happy.

So glad to here!