Pipped. Too dry?

[jessiblackk]

My duck pipped yesterday but has not ben making progress. Ive never hatched an egg before but the white layer under the shell looks almost leathery. should it be this dry?

 

[junebuggena]

Duck eggs need very high humidity to hatch successfully, much higher than the air in Southern California is. Can you get that egg in the bathroom with a hot shower running? It needs to be kept warm and the air needs to be damp. I honestly don't have much hope of it hatching alive at this point.
Next time you want to hatch an egg, get or make an incubator.

 

[jessiblackk]

when should i consider helping him if its too dry for him? i have him in a box right now with a hole in the top and a heating pad at the bottom. i put a towel over the heating pad and wet it around where the egg is but didnt wet the egg. do you think this will help the humidity? i can very clearly see his beak opening and closing and hes chirping non stop.
PS: i will NOT be hatching anymore eggs! this one was given to me from a vietnamese market weeks ago to cook and eat as their cultures delicacy

 

[junebuggena]

Maybe put in a piece of warm damp sponge? And try very gently and carefully to get the pip a bit wider? It has to be done very carefully to avoid excess bleeding. If it's chirping, it's breathing. That's a good thing.
Here are some links that might prove useful.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/step-by-step-guide-to-assisted-hatching
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/941099/duck-shrink-wrapped/20
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...27-malpositioned-shrink-wrapped-needs-help/10

 

[kuchchicks]

If you do nothing at this point it does not sound like this little guy will hatch on his own. It sounds way too dry. I would try to assist if it were me. It is important to go VERY slowly. Tweezers and Q tips are your best friend in this situation. Use the tweezers to pinch small pieces of the shell to make the hole smaller, very small bits at a time. Use the Q tip with warm water to try to dampen the membrane looking for blood vessels. Be careful to keep water from getting into the ducks nostrils, you can drown the chick otherwise. If you have any bleeding at all, STOP! Use a Q- tip to try to hold on the area bleeding to try to stop the bleeding; then allow the egg to rest for a while so that the blood vessels have time to dry up and clot off. Make sure you are returning the egg to the warm area to avoid it getting too cold. This should not be a fast process. When I have assisted chicks from the shell it has sometimes taken me hours to complete the process. There are several good videos on youtube that show you how to assist a hatch. Good luck and please let me know what happens.

 

[jessiblackk]

I did exactly what you said with some tweezers and he popped himself right out! no blood at all! everything looks good, i think we just have to wait for his umbilical cord to dry and detatch from the egg so hes not stuck to it. Hes resting right now on the heating pad on a very low setting and still chirping away. Hes absolutely beautiful and from what i can tell looks healthy as can be!

Thank you so much for your advice.. he was definitely ready to come out, im so glad i listened to you!!!

 

[junebuggena]

Congrats on a successful hatch!

 

[kuchchicks]

So very happy to hear it! Awesome job!!!!