HELP! Duck Egg Emergency!

[RoslinRose]

PLEASE READ! I NEED HELP! This is my first time hatching duck eggs and I may have made a fatal mistake! One of my chickens decided to start laying with duck eggs and I let her set on three. Two were duds and so I have been so worried about my one survivor. My little ducky is supposed to hatch real soon, well that's what I thought. It is on at least day 24 and I don't have an accurate timeline to follow because I don't know the breed of my ducks, for all I know it could take a lot longer for him to be ready to hatch. Anyways Wednesday at 8:00 PM I went to check on him, I candled him and noticed his air cell had gotten quite a bit larger and I saw little shadows in the air cell. I instantly thought he had internally pipped and I was ecstatic! I waited 24 hours making it Thursday at 8:00 PM and he still had not externally pipped. I searched every where for how long I should wait to assist and I was just to worried to wait any longer, for fear he would run out of oxygen. I got a pair of sharp tipped tweesers and gently scratched at the eggshell(at the air cell of course) just until I could chip away a small hole. I looked inside and, surprise! He hadn't even internally pipped. He was pushing at the membrane so hard, it had only made it look like he pipped. So now I have made a hole for oxygen to get in and dry the membrane. I know that ducklings can have a really hard time getting out of membranes that are either to wet or to dry, so I don't know what to do now. I really thought he had internally pipped and needed help externally pipping. he was pushing really hard at the membrane so maybe he was about to pip, or is having trouble? I feel so terrible! Is there any way he might still survive? it is just a small hole, about half the size of my pinky fingernail. Please any advice or knowledge would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

[chickendreams24]

Okay I know hatching ducklings is a bit different from chicks, I have not yet hatched ducklings however from chicks I believe I may have some help until you get some more/better answers.

Okay first are there visible veins in the membrane? If so that's fine. I'm not sure in ducklings but in chicks you could put a very small amount of neosporin without pain relief on a qtip and very gently apply it to the membrane so it doesn't dry out. If the hole isn't large enough I would probably lay the egg(again I'm speaking from hatching baby chicks here so if you know I'm doing something wrong for the humidity let me know please) in a warm wet-ish paper towel and place it back in the incubator.

I have also read something on BYC again pertaining to chicks not specifically ducklings about something similar happening and the person out a small piece of bandaid over the whole after cutting it to just the right size. Remember the more of the shell you cover the less air is getting through.

Do you have the egg locked down and the humidity up?

 

[RoslinRose]

@chickendreams24 Thanks for your advice! I don't have the egg in an incubator, it's under a chicken. I let her set on eggs after a while, but I have plenty of chickens so I put some duck eggs under her. I'm not able to control the humidity at the moment, but if it's really important for a cracked shell I might be able to make a makeshift incubator? On another post I was told to put tape over the hole, which is what I'm planning on trying first. Thanks again!

 

[chickendreams24]

Okay lol sorry I missed that about the hen lol think I was half asleep. Have you been misting the egg? I've read that lots of people who hatch ducks under chickens mist the eggs on occasion to help with humidity? Obviously you don't want it in the hole but if you're worried the humidity is too low you may want to look into that.