How Do I Know When To Help A Chick Hatch?

[Prince and Pavo]

Hello. I had six duck eggs that I was incubating. Four hatched, one is stagnant, and the other had pipped externally. It had pipped over 24 hours ago and continually stuck its bill through the hole it had made this morning. I thought it was okay and may have just been taking longer than the others, although it did seem strange to me that it wasn’t turning itself at all. Just 15 to 20 minutes ago I was whistling to it, and it poked its bill out once and then stopped. I kept whistling, but there was no more movement. I was already considering helping it out, but I just decided to do it because it really seemed like it needed it.

But, I was too late . It had already died, and by the time I cracked the shell some more, I found that it had been shrink wrapped…at least that’s what it looked like. The humidity has been at 60% at the very least during the hatch, mostly staying around 75-80%. I did open the incubator a few times to take the other ducklings out to prevent them from getting splayed leg, curvy toes, and knocking the other eggs around too much, but the humidity jumped back up almost immediately after I closed it again.

Anyway, I pulled it out of the shell. No blood, no unabsorbed yolk sac, just a dead duckling that had apparently been ready to hatch hours ago. I’m very sad, and also frustrated with myself for not stepping in earlier. I know that helping too early can be detrimental, but obviously so can being too late. It’s such a fine line, but if there’s any way to tell that would help tremendously.

First of all, how can you tell if a chick or duckling (etc.) needs help hatching or if it’s actually fine and is just taking a break? Or if it just needs more time to be able to hatch by itself?

Second, why did my duckling die? It was stuck, yes, but it could still breathe and seemed perfectly normal and active even inside the egg this morning. It was actually the second egg to pip (externally, that is).

Third, is there something I could have done to prevent it from dying? If it really did die from being shrink wrapped, why did none of the other ducklings have to deal with this?

By the way, the end of its bill looked kind of crusty, but I think it was probably just some gunk from inside the egg. Also, it had a white, sort of wet, crusty stuff on and around its navel… is that normal or does it indicate a problem?

Thanks for any help y’all can give me, I really appreciate it. Hopefully I’ll be able to help them better next time!

 

[bhaugh]

I have learned over the years and hundreds of eggs set, some just don’t make it no matter what. Usually I find there is something off with chick/duckling where they can’t get out - bad feet, bum leg etc. I used to think that shrink wrapped chicks died because they were shrink wrapped but now I’m not so sure esp if they can breath air. I think they shrink wrap after death because we find them that way. And the ones I did help get out usually die off. You did what you thought was right at the time so no second guessing. I usually give ducklings 48 hours if they are breathing air. They take longer to hatch than chickens. There will always be risks when helping something hatch it’s usually rupturing a vein and they bleed out so a different set of problems.
Enjoy what you have and know if the duckling was meant to hatch it would have

 

[Prince and Pavo]

Thanks for your response!

That makes me feel a little better, although it’s always sad to see something die. Thanks for sharing about your experiences