Duckling dilemmas

[dsptcher]

Hi everyone! We are new to this site but have been following it for 2yrs now. We have a small hobby farm in Eastern Ontario that includes a handful of chickens, a rooster, 3 horses, 2 goats, 2 preg ewes and their boy toy plus 3 female ducks and a mallard. We think the females are Roan and Peking.
So that aside, over the past few months we took 8 duck eggs from the nest (we hit below zero temps an didnt think they would survive). We incubated them, candled, all appears good. 2 days ago 4 started pipping.As of now, they are only beak through. Should I wait wait wait or do the slow an steady assist? At what point do I step in ? Its been 2 days with no progress for 3/4, but at least 2/4 are responding to my voice. Thanks!! Love the site Stay safe and healthy

 

[Isaac 0]

Welcome to BYC!


Ducks are very slow hatcher's, up to 72 hours after the external pip isn't that uncommon, since they are still talking I would leave them for another 12 hours before I would slowly start to chip away where they externally pipped, If you notice they are yawning or you see veins in the egg, set them back in the incubator and check back in a couple of hours to see how they are doing. Sometimes they just need the hole widened and they can usually get it from there, most important thing is that they can breathe, they have plenty of food/water in their system to last a few more days. Keep us posted.

You might find this assisted hatching guide helpful-

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/guide-to-assisted-hatching-for-all-poultry.72886/

 

[dsptcher]

Welcome to BYC!


Ducks are very slow hatcher's, up to 72 hours after the external pip isn't that uncommon, since they are still talking I would leave them for another 12 hours before I would slowly start to chip away where they externally pipped, If you notice they are yawning or you see veins in the egg, set them back in the incubator and check back in a couple of hours to see how they are doing. Sometimes they just need the hole widened and they can usually get it from there, most important thing is that they can breathe, they have plenty of food/water in their system to last a few more days. Keep us posted.

You might find this assisted hatching guide helpful-

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/guide-to-assisted-hatching-for-all-poultry.72886/

Thank you!