Help with hatching

[JWW]

I have an egg that had an external pip about 56 hours ago. It has done so on the small end of the egg. I peeled some of the shell back this morning and applied oil to the membrane. I see veins. I can see and hear the duck. How long will it take for the veins to absorb, and do I need to do anything further?

 

[Sneebsey]

It's normal for a malpositioned pip to take longer to hatch; I'd avoid interfering until the veins have completely receded. Remember that as this duckling has pipped at the wrong end of the shell, its external pip is also its internal pip, if that makes sense. Best of luck.

 

[JWW]

It's normal for a malpositioned pip to take longer to hatch; I'd avoid interfering until the veins have completely receded. Remember that as this duckling has pipped at the wrong end of the shell, its external pip is also its internal pip, if that makes sense. Best of luck.

How long is too long for it to absorb and hatch?

 

[Sneebsey]

It could take two or three days or longer from internal pip (remember that your external pip is both), but if you intervene before the veins have receded, the duckling will bleed out. It's the waiting game, I'm afraid.

 

[JWW]

It could take two or three days or longer from internal pip (remember that your external pip is both), but if you intervene before the veins have receded, the duckling will bleed out. It's the waiting game, I'm afraid.

Thank you.

 

[sylviethecochin]

Even in the correct position, my longest hatch (to date) is one duckling egg that took a whopping 72 hours from his first crack in shell to fully out of the shell. That was last week. Ducks take a ridiculously long time to hatch. I wouldn't worry, so long as the veins aren't dried and he can breathe.

 

[JWW]

Even in the correct position, my longest hatch (to date) is one duckling egg that took a whopping 72 hours from his first crack in shell to fully out of the shell. That was last week. Ducks take a ridiculously long time to hatch. I wouldn't worry, so long as the veins aren't dried and he can breathe.

How can you tell the difference between absorbing veins and dried veins?

 

[JWW]

How can you tell the difference between absorbing veins and dried veins?

I am keeping oil on the membrane. Thank you for your advice.

 

[Sneebsey]

The absorbed veins will be completely absent; they will have receded and you should see very little blood, if any at all. The veins won't dry out, per-say, but the membrane can. Your application of oil will help with the moisture there, and leaving the duckling to do its thing with the incubator lid on will keep moisture in too.

The most important thing is for those veins to recede before you proceed further with an assisted hatch as those indicate that the duckling is still physically linked with the membrane and will bleed out through those veins if they are broken. It will also not have absorbed the yolk until after the veins have receded, if not later still.