Help with a Duckling Hatch

[arbucklemurphy]

Delima. I had 2 mallard duck eggs in the incubator yesterday was the 28th day. One hatched on day 27 how long do I wait on the other one before I give up on waiting for it to hatch. I candled them both before lock down and they definetly had duck's in them? What is the longest it could take to hatch? My kids keep looking for it to be pipped or to hear it and so far nothing. Please some advice!

 

[CorralitosSunflower]

Do you hear any chirping from the egg? Can you tell if it has pipped internally? If so I would suggest drilling a tiny hole into the airsak so it doesn't suffocate. If you are interested in and feel that helping the hatch is necessary you should search for some detailed info on it, I did read a great post about it once but haven't ever done it so I don't want to be the one passing what I "think" I remember along. Since your first duckling hatched a day early it seems like you may have been incubating them at to high of a temp. Good luck, sorry I can't be of more help!

 

[duckluck]

Me personally, I'd candle it right now and see what is going on in there so you can decide what to do next. I don't know about Mallards, but I don't like "wait and see" when it comes to Calls so far. I wouldn't have the two ducklings here if I had waited and seen...waited and seen 9 dead in the shells on the last hatch. I know a lot would argue the whole nature's way thing, but that's my personal opinion.

ETA: Also bear in mind that your hatched one won't like being alone if nothing happens. Is he still in the incubator? It's getting on time for him to eat if he's two days old already...if he's dry and still in, I'd candle and see what is going on with that other egg. He could help encourage with his chirping but you don't want him to start getting weak either if you wait too long.

 

[MuranoFarms]

Ditto what duckluck said. I just had a hatch that ended up with several pipped internally only. 1, I opened up and helped. The rest I was too late cause I didn't want to break lockdown

 

[duckluck]

Quote:
Yeah, I know! It got to the point with the one duckling that I said to the blazes with the lockdown, but by that time, it was too late for the others.

This one that I had to hatch entirely by hand, I don't really think his membranes dried out all that quick. I swabbed them with water where I could, and he still wound up being sticky, but it wasn't quite as bad as I had envisioned. The little bit of yolk he had left, the half-shell he was stuck to overnight actually helped...kept him immobile on his back while he absorbed what he could and the rest dried. I really thought it was going to be a lot more difficult to remove than it actually was. Way I hear people talk about it, I thought it was going to be like getting flypaper glue out of hair! (Don't even ask about that one...)

I'm hoping the learning curve with this next group isn't going to be such a hairpin! I wasn't as scared putting traction on a malpositioned foal two years back as I was with pulling this guy's head out of his shell!

I gotta tell ya, any duckling I see pipped internally is getting an airhole in his shell. No two ways about it. Not going to let loss of humidity scare me off when I'm running at 70%+, just before I see the condensation. The other guy hatched out remarkably fast with his, once he got to it. He didn't get "lost", and he was a pretty darned vigorous little breather. I am hoping that the fact that my air cells on this hatch are looking more textbook than the last are going to help us out here. Hopefully they'll be more vigorous with getting through the membrane so I don't have to make hard decisions there, and then they'll be so kind as to show themselves in the cells so I can give them a breather hole!

 

[arbucklemurphy]

I candled it and it wasn't moving so I broke open a whole where the egg cell was and it's head wasn't even at that end it was dead. Thanks for all your help at least I have one happy duckling him and my 4 year old are already great friends.

Thanks