Pip mark below Air Cell?

[AbbeyRoad]

History:

Runner Duck Eggs, First Time hatching (of course)

Placed in Homemade Cooler incubator on Feb 13th in the evening.

Fan, water tub with sponge and light bulb set up, eggs laying on sides. Wasn't a good hand turner in the beginning, but got much better schedule as we went.

Temp has been 99-100 Humidity was 40-50% and then bumped up to 55-70% last two days.

Noticed air cell shadows of beaks on Sunday the 9th.

Yesterday was lock down day, but before that had internal pips on a few eggs with internal cheeping.

This evening around 7 pm noticed a cracked/pip like area on an egg that is very below the air cell.

I took out egg to candle and see the shell hole closer.

Duckling is alive and cheeping and shows internal pip shadow in the air cell- away from the hole in the shell.

Open hole looked dry and very yellow. Per this threads pics, I thought they were dry, so I applied triple antibiotic (not with painkiller) and placed the egg back in incubator on a damp paper towel.

Now, 4.5 hours later, still cheeping inside, triple antibiotic oint appears to have soaked in or dried up a bunch, but still got a thin layer.

I know they aren't due until tomorrow or the next, but was concerned about the odd crack in the shell so very below the air cell.

Note the yellow/yolky colored membrane (?)


You can see the air cell lines above the S (which meant I could see a pipping shadow the other day)


Side view to show how far from air cell.


Thoughts?? Just leave alone as long as he is cheeping in there?

 

[AbbeyRoad]

Update- Duckling is definitely spun around and facing backwards. We saw beak going in and out. Tried to apply more antibacterial ointment to just the dry looking membranes, not the whole hole. Humidity is currently at 72% with minimal drops when opening quick. It is a tall sized cooler, so we do lose some humidity, but never below 60% and it quickly gets back up to 70s.

 

[Lacrystol]

Stop with the antibotics.

 

[Lacrystol]

Stop with the ointment

 

[AbbeyRoad]

ok, are you worried about dried out membranes or the color? or is that normal for the lower part? I was under the impression they would be white/clear.

 

[Lacrystol]

The poor thing is trying to get out and alls your doing is covering his hole, blocking his ONLY air supply... Keep your humidity at 60 to 65, 70 is pushing it, 80 will kill it.

He is backwards, Please leave him alone, he may need some help but I would not assist or do anything Until his due date has past, give him ONE day past his due date, if he is still in that EXACT same position, and NO progress at all THEN and ONLY then I would be concerned. He's not to dry.

Understand Ducks take longer then a chicken, a chicken can be out of there shell within 8 hours where ducks can take 24 to 48 hours. He has what you would call a SAFE hole, this means that he can BREATH, so he can't run out of air. What you are doing is covering his air supply. It's going to take him LONGER if you keep doing it.

Ducks also do not zip they make a hole and just make that hole bigger and bigger until they can escape.

 

[Lacrystol]

ok, are you worried about dried out membranes or the color? or is that normal for the lower part? I was under the impression they would be white/clear.

ABSOLUTELY NOT, he looks very very good to me.

 

[Lacrystol]

My only concern is that he is upside down, so unless he is a strong little guy and can escape out of that shell on his own, he'll be OK,

My guess, he probably will NOT accomplish this, but we need to give him time to absorb, he's not fully absorbed and he needs all the oxygen he can get to do so. Chirping is a GREAT sign, they chirp because as they are absorbing they have contractions. so they need to chirp and also they seem to yawn. ALL NORMAL..

You don't have to worry about him being dried at this point, He's got TWO membranes, on is attached to him and the other is attached to the shell, your looking at his shell, no need to really worry about that one it's the one that is attached to him, and apparently you can NOT see that one which is a good thing...

Let me go back and see that thread with the pics are?

 

[Lacrystol]

Doesn't really give a clear picture of what they consider a NORMAL outer membrane. So I would not use that as a reference for dry outer membrane.

 

[AbbeyRoad]

To clarify, I only had applied thin ointment around the side - not cover the air hole after we saw beak. Last night, the shadow in the air cell showed like an internal pip. So at that point we did not realize he was turned around.

I have let him be since the last video. Humidity was 65%. Most other eggs have smashed egg area, but no actual hole. I am well aware of the need to be patient. Just was not sure with this guy. Now that i have seen beak, I am much less worried. And glad to hear the yellow brown, dry membrane is not huge issue.

Thanks for verifying our thoughts.

I will update with any progress.