Duck egg internally pipped but not externally pipped. Day 28 tomorrow. What should I do

[Duck life]

This is my first time in hatching a duck egg. I’m on day 28 tomorrow and it’s still not externally pipped. Should I put a safety hole in it as I noticed that the air sac is smaller. Don’t know what to do for the best as I understand if I intervene to early I could cause harm but if I leave it too late I could do the same

 

[Ridgerunner]

Hi, welcome to the forum! Glad you joined!

Duck, chicken, turkey or other fowl eggs do not always hatch exactly on their due date. It is not that unusual for them to hatch as much as a couple of days early or late. Yours is not due to hatch until tomorrow. Sounds like it is closer to "on schedule" than mine often are.

The best thing you can do is to assure that temperature and humidity levels are OK (hopefully without opening the incubator) and then do nothing. Leave the egg alone and give it a chance to do what it needs to do.

That duckling needs to do a few things before it hatches. It needs to absorb the yolk and dry up blood vessels in the membrane that surrounds it. There are a few others but those are the main ones. Many chicks do most of this between internal pip and external pip so it can take a long time between internal pip and external pip. These usually zip and hatch soon after external pip. Others external pip soon after internal pip so they have to do these things between external pip and zip. Those seem like they take forever to hatch, we can get really worried but they are simply not ready to hatch. If we try to help we can easily kill them.

It is hard to tell when you need to intervene or when you can safely intervene. So far, you have not said anything that would have me concerned.

Wishing you the best!