Duck egg hatching on day 33, should I help???

[mommyofthree]

I had 5 duck eggs at lockdown, 2 hatched on day 28, 1 hatched on day 29 and one duckling hatched on day 32. It's now day 33 and the last one is hatching, it pipped about 36 hours ago and during the night last night made a good sized hole in the egg. The beak is sticking out and it looks like it keeps trying to pull it back in to zip around a little more but I think it is too big and can't get the beak back in far enough!! At what point should I try to help it, if at all?? It is still moving around and making noises, but it sounds raspy and a bit quieter now.

 

[Emmalion]

if you do do it very slowly and not all at once. It may just need a starting point so try and go counter clockwise... or so I heard from Pete on here and try and zip for him. Use a blunt end pair of tweezers and kinda crush the shell in a zipping patter around the egg.

Good luck. I have one that pipped a day before lock down (today) on the wrong end.

 

[mommyofthree]

Thanks, I did carefully crack a bit more of the shell where it seemed to be stuck and I was careful not to tear the membrane, we'll see if it helps. Good luck with your hatch! I just had 2 chicks hatch that had pipped on the wrong side of their eggs as well, they got out just fine.