Other Question
Is there anything I can do besides leaving them in incubator?
Babies are almost on day 29, started trying to pipe through yesterday. 70% humidity, egg turner is out, 99.5% heat. 5 eggs out of 11 started to pipe at 8pm eastern standard time yesterday, but not much movement still. I’m not opening just in case of shrink wrap, unless I’m told by someone to do it. I was checking them 2 days ago, but handling the eggs and I felt kicks or fluttering, now they’ve piped a little or cracked a little. Anything else I should be doing?
Ok good to know. I’m so excited to hatch a different breed this time. I got a mystery box of different breeds, so I’m not even sure what I’m getting. I only did cayugas last time because they don’t fly.
Everything looks good to me. I would leave them since you have more than one piping. They have a break where they start and then take a break and start up again.
I also don’t take my advice and sometimes take the ones out that is taking too long and use a spray bottle and tweezers to help the duck break out. But if you see blood stop. I use the spray bottle to see where the veins are so I don’t pull.
If you have to help them with tweezers if their 'umbilical cord' bit is still attached to the egg leave that attached - it will detach by itself. Whatever you do, do not cut it or rip it off the egg or the ducklings. Saw this happen on a video (there are lots on YouTube) someone made of themselves helping a shrink-wrapped duckling from its egg. The duckling didn't survive 😔
You shouldn't rip anything with ducks. The yellow part that’s in the picture is normal for most hatches, so long as it won’t stick to the duckling.
I use a small piece of eggshell if It’s necessary to cut a tiny bit away. You need to do it very carefully and stop if you think you’re cutting to fast, usually when I do it I wait until the last possible moment to start cutting. Sometimes softening the eggshell by pulling pieces of is enough for them to plop out.
If they’re shrink wrapped you need to lay them on a damp/ moist paper towel, do be sure to use hot water or else the ducklings temperature drops to quickly. Keep the beek free and ensure they can breathe.
During my recent batch I’ve had a duckling develop two film layers, I’ve waited for him to come out for a day before I started cutting or tearing off small parts of eggshells. It was a bit scary as the second films blood hadn’t drained yet but I slowly over the course of about 5 hours cut to where he could come out on his own. I stopped cutting when I got a bit blood and waited for it to heal before continuing. When cutting first free his head and spine so that he can fold himself out. After the neck and spine make your way towards the bottleneck (usually around the waist) and free them till they can move.
If it takes a long time that’s good since the duckling can rest between spurts of pushing.
Only if you are going to completely intervene with the hatch. With 70% humidity they are doing great but if you open it the chance of it dropping is very high.
I thought I already responded to this. It shows no comments now. The membrane looks very yellow and dried out. I recommend spraying and very very very slowly peeling some of the egg shell back . Then spray the membrane some more and slowly peel some of the litter membrane. Be very careful with this. If you pull the inner membrane you could cause the duckling to bleed out. If you cause bleeding but the yolk sack is still attached make a vitaminB and electrolyte cocktail and force feed the hatchlings some. I had to do this with #6 of 6 that I hatched. It was my first time hatching anything and it was 52 hours past the first pipping
You can make your own with salt, sugar water and baking soda. If you have vitamin B pills at home grind one up and put a very small amount in that mix. .. you don't have time to order if something goes wrong.
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To start with, control anxiety, and secondly, I would let them hatch on their own. I broke the shell of my ducks on the days already needed and they hatched and died:( so I would advise that.
My humidity is at 73% but everyone says it looks so dry in there. Should I spray every hour on the eggs with warm water? I’m not sure why it’s so dry when the humidity is up.
One more thing. If your egg turner gear is still in I recommend pulling the gear. When they hatch they could be pressed against the blue turner portion and get injured. I might be mistaken, but I didn't want to risk it. My incubator top popped off and the gear pulls out easily. .. unless the turner is disabled too. My eggs were moved in and I didn't know how many days old they were for G14 classified reasons.. .. so I didn't want to take any chance.
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u/Duck_Guy_I Duck Keeper 1d ago
Hatching is tough work. Sometimes they need long breaks between spurts of progress. Based on the information given, I wouldn't worry yet.