First time hatcher 29 days no external pips help!

[New duck mommy 2021]

The one with wax on it feels like it's trying to come through where the wax is should I pick it off? Oh and what's this bruising?

I would remove the wax yes
I did for mine when I saw he had internal pip
It’s hard to break the wax off for them
Bruising ( yellow is normal ) many of mine looked like that. It’s from chewing through a vein to internal pip

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

It's such a tough decision to help or not. I always have to sit on my hands and convince myself not to open the incubator. But all that said, I have helped in a handful of cases and saved them. I would keep a close eye on them after 24 hours of internal pips and no external pips. One thing I will point out though, sometimes you'll *think* they did their internal pip but they really were just pushing on that internal membrane or shadowing; if that's the case then they haven't really been internally pipped for 24 hours yet. It's a fine line of helping or not!

One way to know for sure as your right it’s sometimes hard to tell
But watch the movement in the lower part of the air cell
If it’s random flickering they are shadowing and close. If it’s up and down breathing they are in
Once you see it both ways it’s very easy to tell if the baby is breathing

 

[indianaducks]

One way to know for sure as your right it’s sometimes hard to tell
But watch the movement in the lower part of the air cell
If it’s random flickering they are shadowing and close. If it’s up and down breathing they are in
Once you see it both ways it’s very easy to tell if the baby is breathing

I agree! And it gets easier to tell the more you incubate and hatch LOL.

 

[Canadian Wind]

Also, make sure not to assist if the membrane still has blood vessels!

 

[Cr8zybirbl8dy]

Update: all membranes were dried and by day 31 none had externally pipped. I made the decision to assist and upon doing safety holes saw white dry membrane on all and only did my best watching an assisted hatch video and only one survived. I really wasn't expecting just one, and now have a little black swedish that thinks I'm his mom. I literally cannot go anywhere without him so I don't hardly leave. He sleeps with, eats with me, and if he cannot see me wildly starts peeping. Crazy enough my German shepherd for some reason thinks she's also it's mother and guards it with her life. He's definitely our baby now, and I'm just trying to do my best with him.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Have you thought about getting him or her some friends? Such precious pictures

 

[Cr8zybirbl8dy]

Have you thought about getting him or her some friends? Such precious pictures

Well the thing was this hatch out was supposed to be friends, and hopefully a couple more sister wives for my khaki cambell Drake and Muscovy hen couple "Honk and Helen" I got as gifts four months ago. They were both born in August and Helen had a sister but she sadly got away and I never could get her back so I was advised to get my drake some more females so he doesn't over mate Helen or try with our chickens. I have this awesome incubator that hatched us some spring chicks from our girls last spring so decided to hatch ourselves and let the kids get involved. But it was so different then chickens and I think I candeled them too often and assisted in drying out the membranes. I plan on introducing this one to my other two and still crossing fingers that it's a girl, but need a plan if it's a boy. As in more girls lol this time I'd probably go sexed ducklings ordered from a farm. These were amazon eggs. I did eggtopsy and had four to term ducklings passing one before hatch and the other three during hatch. So sad. Any advice is sure appreciated!

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

Update: all membranes were dried and by day 31 none had externally pipped. I made the decision to assist and upon doing safety holes saw white dry membrane on all and only did my best watching an assisted hatch video and only one survived. I really wasn't expecting just one, and now have a little black swedish that thinks I'm his mom. I literally cannot go anywhere without him so I don't hardly leave. He sleeps with, eats with me, and if he cannot see me wildly starts peeping. Crazy enough my German shepherd for some reason thinks she's also it's mother and guards it with her life. He's definitely our baby now, and I'm just trying to do my best with him.View attachment 3352544

Well the thing was this hatch out was supposed to be friends, and hopefully a couple more sister wives for my khaki cambell Drake and Muscovy hen couple "Honk and Helen" I got as gifts four months ago. They were both born in August and Helen had a sister but she sadly got away and I never could get her back so I was advised to get my drake some more females so he doesn't over mate Helen or try with our chickens. I have this awesome incubator that hatched us some spring chicks from our girls last spring so decided to hatch ourselves and let the kids get involved. But it was so different then chickens and I think I candeled them too often and assisted in drying out the membranes. I plan on introducing this one to my other two and still crossing fingers that it's a girl, but need a plan if it's a boy. As in more girls lol this time I'd probably go sexed ducklings ordered from a farm. These were amazon eggs. I did eggtopsy and had four to term ducklings passing one before hatch and the other three during hatch. So sad. Any advice is sure appreciated!

I’m not sure about how you assisted and what caused you to but for candling I don’t think you over did it
I candle mine daily and sometimes a few times a day I have never lost one to this
I let schools hatch with my set up and encourage them to candle everyday so the kids can watch the amazing growth day to day the schools have got 100% hatch rates never hatching a thing before
I have had many hatch themselves and others I have had to assist
Once you learn the assisting it’s easy not to make the mistakes
But it took me loosing a few to figure that out and help from a member on here to learn how
Your little ones is absolutely adorable