First duck egg zipped in incubator... but it's been 6 hrs and still not out

ahchick1 · Apr 12, 2015

This is my first time hatching duck eggs, and the first pipped last night and this AM when I got up she'd zipped all around the shell, but it has been 6 hours and she's only poked her beak outside the shell a bit. She gets to peeping a bit now and then, so definitely still alive. Today is day 28. At what point might I assist? I'm used to chicks that zip and push out all at the same time. Humidity is at 68%.

Pyxis · Apr 12, 2015

If she's zipped all the way she's ready to come out. Sometimes it happens that they are too big to push themselves out of the zipped area. I would gently take her out of the shell. Just check to make sure she doesn't have unabsorbed yolk, but I doubt that would be the case because they usually don't zip until the yolk is absorbed.

ahchick1 · Apr 12, 2015

Thanks! It didn't take a lot, but I think she definitely needed a little help. Her "zip" wasn't totally clean and some of the shell membrane had dried, and I knew when I'd candled a few days ago this particular egg had an unusually large air sack so she didn't have much room to move. A beautiful black and white Magpie!