Pip at wrong end

[Dances with Ducks]

Thanks for the responses, I am on pins and needles.
Another one made a hole in it's pip and is peeping, but it seemed to be the only one I could hear. I opened up the bator and took out the one pipped at the wrong end and it did start peeping, not as actively as before. I went ahead and chipped away a little bit of a zip line around the hole, trying not to disturb the membrane but two small blood spots started. The membrane seemed really dry, is that normal? I sprinkled all the eggs and put wet paper towel around the backward pipped one but not directly over the opened shell.
The humidity has been mid to high 70s.
Am I doing too much . . too little?
I am worried about the ones that pipped two days ago without any further pipping.
This is day 28, the day I would expect them to hatch.

 

[megshenhut]

I wish I knew more about hatching ducks. I've never hatched them. The turkeys seem like they pip and then just sit forever. When they decide to zip, they usually zip really fast. When I have incubated chicks they seem to pip and zip and the whole process doesn't take as long. But I don't know about ducks. Also the turkeys don't seem like they do much at night when the room is dark. Chicks seem to hatch day or night, not making a difference. Is this your first duck hatch? I would think that the ones that pipped 2 days ago should be zipping by now. Can you hear them in there?

 

[Dances with Ducks]

Hi megshenhut! Thanks for checking back in again!

Yes, this is my first hatch ever, except for a broody duck that hatched a clutch for me last spring.
I had two different breeds of duck in there and all three of the welsh harlequins have hatched and are in the brooder. Ther first two pips were the WH and the third was the backward egg of the other breed. The other kind of ducks are a white layer mix, which is a larger breed. One of those has hatched and another is zipping. I can't tell what is going on with the other white layers except for the wrong-end-pipper. He is still peeping!

The backward egg first pipped Thursday evening. I pulled away more of his shell at the pipped end about two hours ago and wet the membrane. He has enlarged the hole in the membrane, but it's only large enough for his bill to peak through. I am wondering if he should be developing along the same rate as the others of his breed, so I am worried if I help him out his yolk won't be absorbed. But I am still considering pulling off a little more off his membrane because it's been so long. All this opening of the brooder has me worried about drying out the shells and membranes, but so far I think the rest of the ducks may not have been affected because I am still getting zipping and hatching.
Ducks can take 48 hrs from pip to hatch I have read, but this guy is about reaching the time limit that way, although of the seven of his breed, only one has hatched (around 3:45 and is still in the bator), and one other is still zipping.
Not sure which way to go with this.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.

DWD

 

[megshenhut]

Like I said I don't anything about hatching ducklings. With my little turkey that I helped, I removed about all of the top half of the shell, what would come off if he were able to zip it, leaving most of the membrane except for around his head. I didn't do anything with the south end of the turkey shell for the same reason about him still absorbing his yolk. He stayed in his fetal position with his head under his wing for the longest time, but I could tell he was still breathing so I just left him alone. When he was ready, he moved himself out of his shell. He had a bit of a rough navel and the cord part of him was actually stuck to the south end of the shell. He was struggling to move around but was dragging the shell. Everything looked dry enough that he wouldn't bleed from it or lose any yolk, so I reached in and clipped the cord part next to the shell off. After that he was fine. I know what you mean about opening the bator, especially here in CO where the humidity in your house this time of year is about 20 % or less. I was hesitate about that too, and worried about the other eggs. However, I have a good bator that comes right back to the humidity level quickly. What part of CO do you live in? I'm in Central CO, in the mtns at elevation of about 8000 feet. Do you have anything else besides ducks? I also raise chickens, but I have so many in my coop this year that I don't have space for anymore this spring.

 

[Dances with Ducks]

Wow!! I didn't realize you are in Colorado too megshenhut !! You must be pretty hardy raising livestock at that altitude!! How do you protect them from the preditors? I know some people living at that elevation but they are too afraid of all the bear, cougers, bobcats, coyote, fox, and various raptors to consider poultry or even goats. I wish I could offer them some suggestions. I live in the northern front range, we have fox, coyote, racoon, and hawks. I am in a residential area, so I am limited in what I can keep. Besides these ducklings I have eight grown ducks, and two cats.

I will sell most of these new hatches.
That baby hatched out and is doing fine!! I kept giving him help-outs by chipping away at the shell and removing the membrane up to the point where I could see active blood vessels. I hit a few but with only a tiny amount of bleeding. He kept peeping and taking rests. At that rate it took a while before he was in a position to get out, but he finally got his top half out around nine last night and after an hour and a half pulled the rest of himself out. I never saw any yolk, just the yellow on the membrane around the original pip.
I have an old hovabator with forced air. It was holding the humidity really well until last night, can't figure out why that changed. It would be up to 80% with the vent plugs out, and could get back up there pretty fast after I would open it. Now it won't go past about 73% even with the plugs in.
There are two eggs left, and they are still pipping. One egg died, I can't figure out what happened. It was in a corner and I thought it had pipped. The first hatches played soccer with it and when I found it a fair section of shell had broken off, sort of toward the center of the egg. But when I peeled away the shell some more, the head of the duckling was on the other side? Could it have started pipping and got turned around? Could this have somehow been caused by the humidity?
All these white layers have large umbilicals. They start out swollen and red, but the first ones that hatched out are looking much better. I doubt that has to do with the breed but more that they in the bater longer and so were exposed to more fluctuating humidity that affected the membranes which somehow impacts the umbilicle?

 

[megshenhut]

Glad to hear the little guy made it out. I do think the later ones to pip have a harder time. I think the other ones moving the eggs around is a bad thing. I wonder if that is what happened to the one you lost. I lost my last turkey to pip as well. He pipped the shell and started to zip and then just quit. When I checked him out, I found that his abdomen hadn't closed up right so he may have had other problems too. Also I know the opening the bator to help the backward one and then taking the others out probably didn't help.

We live at the edge of town and have lots of fox. They are our main predator. I have to keep ours penned up all the time, even in the day or the foxes have a nice meal. If one escapes it is a goner. We have netting over the top to keep the hawks away. We don't have a lot of hawks, but a few and also a few golden eagles.

We have a friend that has quail and chickens and he has bobcat problems and an enclosed pen and netting as well.

We make sure we lock everyone in their coop before dark even with the enclosure.

I know someone with bear problems, and they just gave up on birds because the bears would just tear everything up to get to them.

 

[Dances with Ducks]

The last one got stuck, that was definitely the humidity, his membrane was shrinking away from the shell. He kept peeping, but could never even break through the shell. His foot was stuck over his head and I don't see how he could even wack his bill against the shell to break it. The membrane probably didn't give him enough room to turn into a decent position. So he was another help out!

But now they are all alive and well.
Here's some more pics of the babies, the first are the Welsh Harlequins which were three of the first four to hatch. They are really feisty.

Here's a group photo of the first seven while the last two fluffed out in the bator, the white layers are rubber ducky cute and come running to me when I talk to them.

I have a hard time understanding how I could have left all the hatches in the incubator from the beginning until the last one hatched. I'm sure it would have been faster, but still the first ones were actually getting aggressive and pecking at the newly hatched ones. They seemed hungry to me and really went for the food when they found it. I know they are supposed to be able to wait but they just seemed to cause havoc in the bator.
Edited to add a picture

 

[Dances with Ducks]

One more question, is this umbilical normal?

I didn't notice this on the Welsh Harlequins, but I think all the white layers had this going on.

 

[megshenhut]

Oh my are they ever cute!! What is cuter than a baby duck? Not my turkeys or chicks for that matter. Glad you were able to save the last one. I don't know about the umbilical on the white ones. I had two turkeys like that and they healed up fine. I attributed it to too high of humidity mid-hatch. It happened on the later ones.

 

[Dances with Ducks]

They umbilicles are healing up, maybe when I dabbed the eggs with water because I was worring about the humidity when I opened in incubator it messed them up. Hatching is such a delicate and precise process, can't impove much on nature. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experience megs!