Peeping is only heard once they have internally pipped.
To pip is to break through the membrane into the air cell. They won't always make a ton of noise.
Externally pipping (not peeping) is when they create a raised dimple (pushing outward) in the shell. There may or may not be a visible hole at this point.
Once they turn to start zipping you will see visible holes and flakes of she'll start to be pushed away and off.
These are stages of hatching, they do not happen quickly. They will rest for prolonged periods of time and look like nothing is going on. Resist the urge to "help" or open the bator. Allow them the time to absorb the yolks and hatch on their own.
"helping" too early often leads to dead hatchlings. Most do not realize the long timeline it takes for waterfowl to hatch. They panic, open an egg thinking they are "helping" only to cause more damage and end up with dead babies. "helping" never involves removing the shell from the entire top (fat/air cell end) of the egg. Doing so can lead to the inner membrain shrinking down trapping the hatchling. It can also result in severe blood loss, dooming the hatchling.
Never, ever think that because the Calendar says its hatch day that the said hatchlings got the memo and will be on time or a text book perfect hatch. Hatchling lengths are a guide to what the average length of time from setting of eggs to babies hatching normally is for what ever said breed you are incubating. They can come sooner and they very well can go longer than the "today is hatch day date".
Call ducks are notoriously hard to hatch because of the very desirable tiny bills they have. Add to that if you bought eggs and they were shipped then there are other factors that can result in a bad hatch. Choosing to incubate call duck eggs means you have accepted the normal risk of having a poor to bad hatch associated with the breed. If you had them shipped, then you need to be aware of the chances none will hatch, or maybe 1 will hatch.
Just because 1 egg is sticky doesn't mean they all will be, you won't know until more actively start working at hatching. If this is the first time incubating anything then you haven't tested your bator and environment to know how they effect your hatch rates. The more hatching you do, the more you will become aware of how your incubator in your home with your climate work together. This SHOULD lead to better hatches over time. If you ignore any issues or troubled hatches though you could be doomed to bad hatch after bad hatch. Learn from hatching mistakes, or troubled hatches to help yourself improve the next and the next.
We are human, using machines, trying to imitate nature. No one is perfect and has constant perfect hatches with zero losses. If they say they do, they are lying and just don't want to admit to anything but a 100% hatch. It's ok to have losses, we may not like them, but they should be used as learning experiences.
Give us updates every couple hours or so.
