A little background: Almost 6 weeks ago now I received a dozen eggs from a friend from her 'mixed coop' of ducks (and geese). A week later she brought me another dozen. She brought me the eggs because she was unable to hatch them in her incubator and wanted to be sure that it was her incubator and not her ducks. The storage on these eggs was a disaster- she tossed them into a bowl any which way in a room kept at very high temps because she was using the whole room as a brooding box. So these poor eggs came to me filthy, with dislocated air sacks and the first dozen had been sitting in the bowl for I-don't-know-how-long. Of the first dozen, only 4 started to grow. Two hatched on time and are cute little Rouen/Pekin mixes, one died in the shell before pipping, and one hatched a week later as a little Muscovy mix. Of the second dozen, 9 began to grow, 4 hatched out (3 rouen mix, 1 runner mix) on time, 1 hatched three days late, 1 drowned in the shell after shoving its bill through the egg in such a small hole it couldn't get its nostrils out or open its beak to breathe. The other three are sitting on the turner- I've clocked movement in 2 and I'm uncertain about the third, though leaning towards dead.
Of the two remaining that I have hope for, one of them decided late last night to pip externally 6 days 'early' if it is going to be like the muscovy that hatched, or 3 days late if it's one of the other sorts. I was going to lock them down with my peacock eggs on friday. I was candling when I noticed the pip, and saw something weird going on with the air cell- no beak, no movement. Of course this is one of the eggs with the air cell located in a strange place, and the other two eggs with sideways air cells were unable to pip properly, so I was VERY concerned. I cracked the pip a tiny bit more to find out what was going on, and discovered that the egg had not pipped internally yet. There was no torn membrane, and no beak (and I can't see a beak under the membrane, which still concerns me).
And then it squeaked at me. From under the membrane.
I wet the drying membrane with a q-tip (I keep various supplies near the incubator) and set it back in the incubator while I went to get a warm, wet paper towel. I wrapped it up without covering the pip, and left it overnight. I checked again this morning to replace the towel, it it is still peeping at me but no internal pip.
I've not yet encountered this situation, and I need to know if there's anything more I should be doing aside from keeping it from shrink wrapping as best as I can.
Of the two remaining that I have hope for, one of them decided late last night to pip externally 6 days 'early' if it is going to be like the muscovy that hatched, or 3 days late if it's one of the other sorts. I was going to lock them down with my peacock eggs on friday. I was candling when I noticed the pip, and saw something weird going on with the air cell- no beak, no movement. Of course this is one of the eggs with the air cell located in a strange place, and the other two eggs with sideways air cells were unable to pip properly, so I was VERY concerned. I cracked the pip a tiny bit more to find out what was going on, and discovered that the egg had not pipped internally yet. There was no torn membrane, and no beak (and I can't see a beak under the membrane, which still concerns me).
And then it squeaked at me. From under the membrane.
I wet the drying membrane with a q-tip (I keep various supplies near the incubator) and set it back in the incubator while I went to get a warm, wet paper towel. I wrapped it up without covering the pip, and left it overnight. I checked again this morning to replace the towel, it it is still peeping at me but no internal pip.
I've not yet encountered this situation, and I need to know if there's anything more I should be doing aside from keeping it from shrink wrapping as best as I can.
