Weird air cell

[duckluck]

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I agree...I'm a dab hand at midwifing them but it's very, very difficult to do when you're not there to look and read the egg for yourself. And, being on the wrong side of the egg can and does happen sometimes no matter what anyone does. I too am hoping for the best and wishing them the best of luck.

 

[duckluck]

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When and IF i do decide to do that, would I do it where the crack is? or in the air cell? I wish I had a better camera so I could take a pic of the crack but when I do, the crack doesn't show up

Nope, you'd make it in the air cell as far away from the dark area as possible, and very gently so you don't bruise the baby or any membranes that you can't see. You make a tiny hole, peek in with a candler, and try and make your best guess as to what to do next so you can get them back into the humidity as quickly as possible...your clock is running on the loss of humidity inside the egg once you pop that hole in the shell, and the longer you have them out like that, the more likely they are to be stuck or at best sticky. This is one reason why it is hard to coach midwifing an egg when you're not there to see it, because you have to know what you are looking at and make decisions quickly and decisively but not make panicked or rash moves without knowing and understanding what you are doing and why. The membranes can get very opaque around pipping time as the egg dries down and this can make the bill very hard to locate. The bill struggles against the membrane, pushing the blood out of the vessels there and shrinking them while it tries to break through, so where it is pushing is the safest point to puncture the membrane IF that has to be done.

 

[davekrista]

Still nothing this morning. I'm going to try to keep busy today too. We are going to start on making a shelter for the ducks and get that ready. We are adding on to our chicken shed and the ducks will have their own room. And my husband works for an insulation company so it will be well insulated for the cold winter months. I'm hoping to have atleast 2 hatch out. I will be happy with that, but will be even happier if more hatch.

 

[FunnyBunnies12]

I'm ending day 28 from my calculations, but not momma's so I could be wrong but from the rocking and what I saw candling I'm pretty certain I'm right on. I've been trying to keep busy myself, but didn't do the smartest thing because curiousity and impulsitivity got the best of me and I had to just know if any were alive or not since I was seeing rocking but still no pipping yet as of 8pm EST tonight. So far all are alive as of 1:30pm, I can even tell which ones are going to have light pink bills because I can see them poking that clearly, but from what I went through last weekend I know how fast that can change. But my humidity level is at around 82%, temp at 98.5-99, so I'm all set for them to hatch, it's just a matter of if/when they want to hatch. As the time continues to go on, even though I know 28 days is a general rule of thumb for ducks, and it can happen sooner or later then day 28, but I'm beginning to lose hope until I see a pip. It will be so devastating if I lose all 8. I've been pretty good with self control and not candling with this batch, but today my curiousity and panic got the best of me, if any were pipped I would not have even opened to check. So, I sit and wait along with you! I wish you all the best of a quick safe rememberable hatching of your eggs. How many again do you have due to hatch?

 

[davekrista]

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Hi Missy. I have 6 that I'm waiting on, but I haven't seen movement in atleat 1, not even when I candled the last time before lockdown. 3 are cracked from the inside, and 1 of those 3 looks like its finally starting to poke out the shell just a little tiny bit. The others, i can see sometimes the way the light hits, it kind of candles at certain angles and every once in a while I can see baby moving in some of them, so I am remaining hopeful. In about 1 hour and 40 min I will be starting day 25 and would have been my original lockdown day so i'm praying all is still well.

Good luck with yours. I will keep you duckies in my prayes as well...