external pipping at 24 days help??

[Miss Lydia]

Hi,

I actually have another egg in the incubator that I put in from a batch a friend brought us down to eat! and despite the fact I have ignored it for the past few days as I didn't want to open the incubator I candled him last night and he's dancing around having a little disco of his own!!

Which I suppose just proves the point that this hatching game is not an exact science!! So I might just see what happens with him before I attempt to put any more eggs in to hatch! He's got another two weeks to go so I'll keep you posted!! and thanks again for your help!

Is it a duckling in the egg?

 

[marisabe]

yeah, duckling from aylesbury duck I think.

 

[Miss Lydia]

yeah, duckling from aylesbury duck I think.

 

[Mum]

Dancing disco ducking in an egg

Good luck with that one

 

[duckmamma]

Hi marisabe,
I realize all the warnings about opening the incubator because it'll drop the humidity and dry out the duck's membranes, but if ducks don't externally pip by day 27 or 28, it's the lesser of two evils to open the incubator and investigate. Despite your high humidity setting, sometimes duck egg still have tough membranes, esp if you didn't mist the eggs a couple times a day, and esp if it's a fan-type incubator. The ducklings then get shrinkwrapped in the membranes and can be unable to pip the internal membrane, or if they do manage to do that then they get stuck in place after pipping the shell. They are unable to zip themselves out. If you try to wait it out, the ducklings die in place.
It's easy to tell if a duck is ready to hatch but is stuck in the membrane...mallards should pip if it's past day 27 or esp day 28, you can candle the eggs to see if they've internally pipped (will see the silhouette of the bill in the air sac if it pipped the air sac). Use a pair of tweezers that you've washed and disinfected by soaking in solution of 1 tb plain bleach to 1 cup water then washed clean. Gently poke a little hole in the large end of an egg and look at the membrane. If the membrane's clearish white with no live blood vessels and if there are no live blood vessels on the inner shell of the egg, then the duckling's about ready to hatch. Ducklings ready to hatch will also be moving their bills forward, trying to pip and zip. The duckling's membrane loses its blood first, then it takes about a day more for it to absorb the rest of its yolk sac. Anyway, if the membrane is still white and has red/rigid blood vessels, then the blood is still flowing thru the membrane and the duckling is not ready to hatch yet. Ducklings not ready to hatch don't peep much if at all yet.
You can help a duckling that's ready to hatch but shrinkwrapped by doing this: Extremely gently, peel away the shell from the membrane, starting at the large end where the duckling's bill is. The duckling will peep to you as you do this...give him a mama's quack back to reassure him. Your goal is to assist the trapped duck to hatch himself. He can push himself out of his shrinkwrapped membrane if you moisten it with warm distilled water (I dab the membrane with moistened cotton swab). Start by moistening around his bill, and let him work it, then moisten anywhere the membrane looks dried out and tough...it will soak up the water and soften to where he can just push himself out. The shell can also be dried out too so you may have to peel more of that off the membrane to unzip it for him.