Overdue duck egg!! No signs of pipping. Plz help!

[K33sha]

I have been incubating an abandoned duck egg. I'm completely new at this, but I've done hours of research about how to incubate eggs. This website has helped a lot! Up until hatch time my egg has been developing fine. I had two to begin with, but two weeks ago one of them started sweating out a sticky amber colored fluid..after reading up on it I figured it was dead..so I'm down to one. We are at day 30 and there's no sign of internal pipping. I've done the float test..it floats fine..with just the air cell above water..but now when I candle I don't really see movement. I'm worried the little guy might be stuck or malpositioned. My question is what should I do now? I've read a few threads that talk about putting a small hole in the air cell to check for life..or to assist hatching..if he is that overdue..is this a good idea? If nothing else, just to know forsure if he is alive! I just want him to make it so bad! If I do, and he is alive..what should I do from there? Should I leave it alone..or try to find the beak and remove the membrane from the beak so he can breath if there isn't veins on the membrane? I just need someone to walk me through this process. I feel like time is against us with him being so overdue. Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm so worried!

 

[Pyxis]

What breed of duck is this? Do you know the date that the egg was set on? What has your temperature been in the incubator?

 

[K33sha]

The eggs were abandoned by mom on the 4th of may..I started incubating on the 5th. Don't have an incubator..but I made a homade one. I've had the temp at about 99* up until day 25.. then lowered to 96* and upped the humidity by adding a bowl of water. I have a forehead scan thermometer and the egg has stayed at a steady temp. I've checked on it daily.

 

[K33sha]

Not sure about the breed at all.. the mom was a small dark colored duck..not sure that helps..but she wasn't very colorful..just grayish blackish colored..maybe a mallard?

 

[Pyxis]

I was wondering if she might be a muscovy, meaning that her egg would take 35 days to hatch, but it doesn't sound like it.

Your temp has been low, either half a degree low if you were using forced air or a full 2 and half degrees low if your incubator is still air, so that can definitely cause a late hatch. Your temp is too low right now too, put it back up to where it was before. Do you know what the humidity in there is?

 

[K33sha]

What breed of duck is this? Do you know the date that the egg was set on? What has your temperature been in the incubator?

I was wondering if she might be a muscovy, meaning that her egg would take 35 days to hatch, but it doesn't sound like it.

Your temp has been low, either half a degree low if you were using forced air or a full 2 and half degrees low if your incubator is still air, so that can definitely cause a late hatch. Your temp is too low right now too, put it back up to where it was before. Do you know what the humidity in there is?

Not sure about humidity..but it's pretty darn humid in there! It's not a real incubator..just homemade container with heat lamp, and a bowl of water. Along with the water, I've been spritzing the egg with water every few hrs. Sry I don't have as much knowledge I should have..I wasn't prepared or expecting to be fostering the egg..but now that I am I have just been doing the best with what I have. If it helps..when I first found the eggs..they were sort of green colored, and have since turned from green to dark off white. Idk if the egg could tell you the breed..? Is there any hope for it being this late? Should I just up the temp n wait even longer? And what r your thoughts on the hole trough the air cell thing? By the way..thank u for taking the time to help

 

[Pyxis]

I wouldn't do the hole unless you suspect it's internally pipped or you really think it's dead and you want to check on that. Being that the temp has been so low, it's very possible that it's just running a few days late. I'd give it another day before putting a hole in it at least.