How long should I let her brood

[eLiz423]

So my first duckling was hatched 3days ago, he did not make it overnight bc someone got ahold of him. There was a duckling dead outside the nest so I'm not sure if it fully developed or not. So there's 2babies born so far they did not make it. Yesterday another baby was born and made it overnight bc I enclosed the momma and nest. So my question is..
There are 3eggs left. One of them definitely looks like it will hatch anytime now (I thought it would atleast hatch lastnight but he didn't) but I do not hear him squeaking and then there are the other two I guess was laid later than the other ones. I'm wondering how long I should let her keep laying on the nest before I just need to get rid of the eggs if they are not going to hatch? Thanks any advice is helpful.

 

[dotknott]

If you can candle them, do so. After 5 days it may be time to remove any that have not internally pipped.

 

[eLiz423]

Candle them? What do you mean by pipped? I just hope the babies will make it. I mean the one that I thought would atleast would hatch lastnight. It's shell is so thin you can see there is a baby in it but I do not hear any squeaking. Just not sure

 

[dotknott]

Okay, you need a primer on hatching.
Candling is when you take an egg into a dark place and use a flashlight or candling device to try to see some of the developing embryo. Here’s a write up about it by meter farms http://www.metzerfarms.com/Candling.cfm Candling can show movement inside the egg. Movement is good, even if there isn’t an internal pip.

An internal pip is when the duckling begins to hatch by moving into the air cell. When you candle, you can ID an internal pip by looking for the shadow of the bill of the duckling in the air cell end of the egg. Once you have an internal pip, you should expect to see an external pip in 24 hours.

A pip, or external pip is when the duckling breaks the shell. Hopefully this happens on the same end as the air cell, but sometimes the duckling bypasses the air cell entirely. This is called a mis-pip. Most mis-pips will result in a successful hatch, but if there is a mis-pip, keep an eye on the egg and duckling. Sometimes mis-pipped ducklings can’t actually reposition themselves and have trouble getting themselves out of the shell.

24-36 hours after an external pip you should start to see unzipping. This is when the duckling starts to make several pips around the shell. This will help it to break out of the shell.
http://herouxpotager.com/2016/blogposts/how-to-hatching-duck-eggs/#day25