Egg not progressing, don't know what to do!

[Kat9kat132]

So, I've been raising 4, what I thought to be, Muscovy ducks. I bought them from a lady who said they were Muscovy, but they started pipping at day 27 and it's day 29 today, so I'm pretty sure they're not Muscovy anymore. We've lost one of the ducklings, and the other one hasn't pipped or anything yet. Anyways, when they started pipping on day 27, they both had only one pip dent mark thing. Yesterday (day 28), duck #1 egg made a second hole in the egg. It's been peeping away and shaking the egg. I've been monitoring them at night, without opening the incubator of course. The humidity is at 85% and the temperature is at 37.0°. When I got out of bed to check on them at 1:00am, there was no progress, still just 2 holes in egg #1, and 1 hole in egg #2. But when I got up at 3:00am, duck #2 had made about 3 holes and was trying to push the egg shell off. I can see a bit of his beak tooe. Anyway, I'm a bit worried about egg #1 because it's been over 40 hours since it started its first pipping. Both eggs are shaking and peeping loudly, but I'm worried about the first egg because it hasn't made much progress. Should I intervene? Should I wait longer? Any help would be much appreciated, thank you!

 

[nchls school]

So, I've been raising 4, what I thought to be, Muscovy ducks. I bought them from a lady who said they were Muscovy, but they started pipping at day 27 and it's day 29 today, so I'm pretty sure they're not Muscovy anymore. We've lost one of the ducklings, and the other one hasn't pipped or anything yet. Anyways, when they started pipping on day 27, they both had only one pip dent mark thing. Yesterday (day 28), duck #1 egg made a second hole in the egg. It's been peeping away and shaking the egg. I've been monitoring them at night, without opening the incubator of course. The humidity is at 85% and the temperature is at 37.0°. When I got out of bed to check on them at 1:00am, there was no progress, still just 2 holes in egg #1, and 1 hole in egg #2. But when I got up at 3:00am, duck #2 had made about 3 holes and was trying to push the egg shell off. I can see a bit of his beak tooe. Anyway, I'm a bit worried about egg #1 because it's been over 40 hours since it started its first pipping. Both eggs are shaking and peeping loudly, but I'm worried about the first egg because it hasn't made much progress. Should I intervene? Should I wait longer? Any help would be much appreciated, thank you!

You're right. They can not be Muscovy eggs hatching at 28 days. If the lady had different species of ducks a mistake is easy to make; especially if the ducks are using the same nest to lay in. Intervening is a hard decision to make. Doing so would lower the temperature and humidity in the incubator at a crucial time. Also if you intervene too soon you might cause a problem when there might not be one. Hatching takes time, but when the time is right progress can be rather fast. If duck #2 has not hatched yet consider waiting before making the decision to assist egg #1. Either way you take a chance. All to often assisting turns into a disappointing endeavor.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

So, I've been raising 4, what I thought to be, Muscovy ducks. I bought them from a lady who said they were Muscovy, but they started pipping at day 27 and it's day 29 today, so I'm pretty sure they're not Muscovy anymore. We've lost one of the ducklings, and the other one hasn't pipped or anything yet. Anyways, when they started pipping on day 27, they both had only one pip dent mark thing. Yesterday (day 28), duck #1 egg made a second hole in the egg. It's been peeping away and shaking the egg. I've been monitoring them at night, without opening the incubator of course. The humidity is at 85% and the temperature is at 37.0°. When I got out of bed to check on them at 1:00am, there was no progress, still just 2 holes in egg #1, and 1 hole in egg #2. But when I got up at 3:00am, duck #2 had made about 3 holes and was trying to push the egg shell off. I can see a bit of his beak tooe. Anyway, I'm a bit worried about egg #1 because it's been over 40 hours since it started its first pipping. Both eggs are shaking and peeping loudly, but I'm worried about the first egg because it hasn't made much progress. Should I intervene? Should I wait longer? Any help would be much appreciated, thank you!

From my duck hatching friends I learned that ducks can take a lot longer to transition from pip to zip. My concern would be the hatcher that has 3 different pips. It almost sounds as though it's trying to zip but isn't in the proper positioning to do so. I am one of those people that assist-quite successfully when I see something not going right and I also believe that opening the bator during hatch is not a problem unless your humidity is not adequate and 85% humidity is great for assisting. I am a firm believer each hatcer must go with their gut and comfort level as well.

If I was faced with this situation this is what I would do. I would give egg 2 more time unless he seems distressed but I would start an assist on egg 1. Tweezers, q-tips and water (some also use bacitracin) is what I would gather up.
I would remove the egg from the bator and with the tweezers I would start chipping away the shell from one pip whole as though I was zipping around for the chick. Using a wet q-tip I would moisten the membranes looking for prominent veining. If there were no prominent veining I would seperate the membrane as well. If there is still prominent veining I would moisten the membrane and replace the egg to the bator to give the veining time to shut down. And in an hour or so repeat the process.

Once it is zipped around you can either put it back in and let it attempt to finish or seperate the egg and let them push themselves out if they haven't already done so while you zip for them. Any sign of blood at any point I hold a wet q-tip against it for a minute and then replace them to the bator. Never keep going if you have a bleeder.

Just remember to make sure the humidity in the bator isn't dropping below 65% for any length of time and that when you close it it regains the humidity. I use a wet sponge in mine so all I have to do is rewet and stick it back in to refresh my humidity. Assisting always comes with that chance that it won't help, but often if done right and under the right circumstances assisting can be very successful.

Good luck in whatever you choose!