When to assist a muscovy duckling to hatch?

[scooter1989]

They are on day 35 now. Pipped on day 34.

 

[casportpony]

They are on day 35 now. Pipped on day 34.

When you candle them, can you tell if their beak is touching the shell?

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

Here are some pictures of an egg I just found outside. Three have just hatched, two are pipped externally, but this one hasn't.







-Kathy

 

[scooter1989]

Yes, they are touching and tapping

 

[scooter1989]

They look like the picture you got there.

 

[casportpony]

Are they externally pipped yet?

-Kathy

 

[Lacrystol]

I would give them one more day...

 

[Lacrystol]

If there's no progress by day 36, then I would safe hole them. Do you know what safe holing is? It's when you take a needle or I use tweezers, you make a small hole you don't want the hole to big because then they can shrink wrap, no bigger then the tip of a pen, you make a small hole at the air cell, this gives them a chance to breath. Then give them 24 hours and see if they make any progress..

 

[scooter1989]

Hey casportpony! You where right about do what your guts till you lol I had a vibe that something was wrong, So I did safe holes. Found out that their membranes where dry like paper also alot of amber fluid again but not as much like my last two batches of eggs. So what I did was I took some cotton swabs and rid the yucky goo out and once i did they had alot more room to wiggle. At this point I now have to help them hatch of course lol. One of the chick had his beak stuck between his legs and underneath his yoke sac, so pop it over to his right leg like they should be and now he is moving his head like if he was trying to tap. Both are doing really good so far and still very active. There are very little blood left in their veins and still a little bit of a yoke sac left. I think these two will make it. I help a lot of eggs hatch before like call ducks, but I think muscovys are by far the hardest to me to assist. One chick didn't make it though when I went back before I wrote this post, he drown in amber fluied, I remove him from the shell and I notice he was ready to hatch a while ago because his yoke was fully absorbed, I felt gusty and that what made me start working on the other two that where tapping. I feel more confidence now that these two I have now will make it. I'll be a all night to keep an eye on them since I don't have any work tomorrow I'll let you guys know how they went.

 

[scooter1989]

Lacrystol, Funny how you mentioned the safe holes because I was doing that already at 1:45 am and found them shrink warped. They are now freed from the wrap and moving healthy. They had a lot of amber fluid in their shell so I clean it out with cotton swabs and wet the duckling down with warm water to rid the goo of their body with the swabs. They where moving so slow at first until now! I think these guys will make it. I also let their lungs develop first when I did the safe hole then waited it out 2 hours before making the hole bigger, because I heard somewhere that if their is too much oxygen at first, it can kill them. They seem to be doing good so far now and lets hope they make it all the way. Their yolk is almost absorbed about 80% of it right now.

I'll update guys!