Ducks pipped early…

[Myrkk]

Hi, and thanks for any advice. I’m stressing.
I bought 6 LF silver appleyards and popped them in the incubator expecting to lock them down yesterday for hatching Thursday/Friday.
Imagine my surprise to find two externally pipped yesterday am when I got up. They had broken the shell but the membrane was still intact so I broke it gently thinking it is possibly too tough as I hadn’t popped the humidity up by then. Switched the egg turning off and increased humidity to 80%.
This am both are still in their shells and a third one that I had seen trying to internally pip hadn’t so I gently opened it’s shell and broke the membrane but I think it is too early for it. My bad but I was concerned due to the others being so early. I’ll keep it in the high humidity, it is showing signs of movement but I haven’t opened it much so can’t see it’s head.
A fourth egg is not showing signs of pipping as of yet. Two eggs didn’t progress and were removed.

Should I leave the initial two to unzip themselves?

Do I just keep the one I opened in the high humidity to do it’s thing?

First time manually incubating any eggs and first time ever with ducks. My bantams always used to brood our chicken eggs but we don’t have them any more.

 

[Myrkk]

Jeez what a rollercoaster. Of the 4 eggs, the one that didn’t pip properly but had movement died. Its head was under its wing and it had a very small bill compared to the one that has hatched.
The one that has hatched hadn’t even attempted zipping but its breathing was becoming rapid and the membranes were drying so I took the decision to mostly remove it from it’s shell (no blood vessels and yolk fully absorbed so fingers crossed it’s ok)
The other one is still in its shell and being lazy but it pipped a little later than the other so going to leave it a little longer.
The other egg, I saw some internal movement before I locked down Tues am but there is nothing now (I checked when I removed the dead one).
So sad to see a fully formed duckling that just didn’t make it out of the shell . Now I’m wondering what I did wrong, what I could have done differently etc.
I’m praying for a miracle 3rd baby to come out of that last egg but in my heart I’m pretty sure it’s dead also

 

[Myrkk]

If there is one duckling that is trying to hatch early and peeping away does it cause others to try and hatch too early?

 

[muddy75]

The difference in hatching is most likely varying temps inside your incubator. Do you have thermometers in different positions?

 

[muddy75]

I’m sorry for your loss. IME ducks are difficult and it’s hard to know when to assist. There is a good article here on assisting that was very helpful. My broodies were much better at hatching than I was

 

[muddy75]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/assisting-call-duck-hatches.76507/

This is the article I mentioned

 

[muddy75]

Hi, and thanks for any advice. I’m stressing.
I bought 6 LF silver appleyards and popped them in the incubator expecting to lock them down yesterday for hatching Thursday/Friday.
Imagine my surprise to find two externally pipped yesterday am when I got up. They had broken the shell but the membrane was still intact so I broke it gently thinking it is possibly too tough as I hadn’t popped the humidity up by then. Switched the egg turning off and increased humidity to 80%.
This am both are still in their shells and a third one that I had seen trying to internally pip hadn’t so I gently opened it’s shell and broke the membrane but I think it is too early for it. My bad but I was concerned due to the others being so early. I’ll keep it in the high humidity, it is showing signs of movement but I haven’t opened it much so can’t see it’s head.
A fourth egg is not showing signs of pipping as of yet. Two eggs didn’t progress and were removed.

Should I leave the initial two to unzip themselves?

Do I just keep the one I opened in the high humidity to do it’s thing?

First time manually incubating any eggs and first time ever with ducks. My bantams always used to brood our chicken eggs but we don’t have them any more.

Do you have a salt-tested hygrometer? Your humidity seems high and could be higher if your hygrometer is off. The ducklings may have drowned before hatching

 

[Myrkk]

I followed the humidity levels in the articles I read which was 45 - 50 until day 25 then 80.
I bought a herp thermometer and hygrometer to double check the incubators display and they are more or less on track.
None of the eggs that have hatched had a humidity issue inside and the one that didn’t hatch when I opened it didn’t have any water inside either.
They all had large air spaces, so large I was wondering if I’d had the humidity too low (I added a silica gel sachet at the beginning to absorb some moisture as it’s been very wet here).
the ones that are out of their shells are doing well but the one that pipped early is much larger than the others and was just under the heating element so that is possibly why, a hot spot in the incubator?
I’ll get more thermometers etc for the next time to ensure I don’t have this issue in the future.

 

[Myrkk]

Thanks for the article, I haven’t seen that one, will have a look .

 

[Myrkk]

Thanks everyone. I’ve ended up with two little ‘uns. I’m hoping for one male; one female. Pic below of Crimson & Clover (my hubbie is a fan of Joan Jet and the Blackhearts).

Can anyone advise whether I’d be best to incubate new eggs now to get a few more in case they’re both drakes, or if incubating next year and integrating the youngsters with this years will be smooth?