Hatching duck eggs need help

[Louu]

Could someone help please. So I had 2 ducklings pip on day 27 around 2:30pm ( I was watching on the camera) humidity for the first 26 days was between 50 and 55% lockdown was between 65% and 70% temperature fine the whole way through incubation, 21 hours later the ducks beak is through so I assumed the baby would pop out anytime. I was wrong, everything was going fine then for 2 hours no movement or chirps. I read a couple of forums and it said to assist the duck. Carefully remove some of the outer shell.there was no blood. But the baby didn’t survive. Could the baby of just been too tired or did I do something wrong. First ever hatch. Thanks

 

[Debbie292d]

Hi Louu, you did the right thing waiting like you did, however, it just wasn't meant to be it sounds like. I'm sorry!

Too many people rush to help and then their duck/chicken winds up having leg or neck issues.

They can take up to 24 hours from pip to get themself out. They take many breaks and even sleep, so you might think they died, but they are just resting as it's hard work for them. With this one of yours, who knows as it could have had something wrong with it.

Here's a guide for assisting hatching that is extremely helpful.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/guide-to-assisted-hatching-for-all-poultry.72886/

 

[Ridgerunner]

First, I agree. Do not feel guilty. Often if an egg fails to hatch there i something wrong with it to start with. Sometimes heling them hatch is successful but sometimes they were not meant to make it. Consider it a fatal birth defect.

The hatching process is basically the same for any egg. Before they hatch the chick has to dry up the blood vessels in the membrane that surrounds it by absorbing the blood. If it doesn't do that it can bleed to death if a blood vessel is opened during hatch.

It has to absorb the yolk. It can live off of that yolk for a few days after hatch without needing to eat or drink. That's so the early hatchers can wait on the later hatchers. Occasionally a chick will hatch in its own before it has absorbed the yolk. Some of those make it, some don't.

There are other things they need to do before they hatch. They reposition themselves so they can internal pip, puncture the air cell and live off of that air as they learn to breathe in an atmosphere instead of being in a liquid world. They need to position themselves for external pip and eventually for zip. There are other things.

Some eggs do a lot of this before they even internal zip. Some don't. Some do a lot before external zip, these are nice in that they can zip and hatch pretty quickly after external pip. Some wait until after external zip to do a lot of this. Those can go more than a day before they finally zip. Those can be worrying.

We often cannot tell where that egg is in this process. That makes deciding when to help difficult. If we help too soon we can kill it.

It is not an exact science. Debbie's link to assisted hatch is about the best we can do. I don't assist many but when I do I usually lose about half of them. You gave yours the best chance you could. It was the best you could do.