Help duckling out of unpipped egg?

[Sivory]

Hello,
Thank you in advance for any help offered.

I have incubated plenty of chicken eggs and have had to intervene a few times, I always wait the 48 hours and only ever help minimally.

I recently had some very clucky hens & there were not fertile chicken eggs in my city so I bought some duck eggs (6), and I placed 3 under each chicken.

Hatch day isn’t until tomorrow, but one duckling is out, the other has pipped (with no progress overnight) and the other, which is in the one question, is not pipped at all.

I’ve never hatched ducklings before (runner ducklings) so I am unfamiliar with what to expect.

Usually I would never, ever put a pip in an egg, but I’m really worried about this one duckling and want to know what you’d do?

It’s a weird coloured egg, black at one end, almost like an internally pipped egg but nothing externally. I can feel it in the egg moving about, it just hasn’t seemed to be able to pip through.

What would you do/should I do? I’m terrified to pip it externally for the duckling because I know it can cause so much more damage than good, it’s just hard seeing it struggle. I’d say it’s been internally pipped or at least working on it for 36-48 hours that I’ve noticed.

Thanks again for your help

 

[Debbie292d]

As long as you know it internally pipped, putting a small hole in the air cell end won't hurt anything and gives it some fresh oxygen.

Since they aren't due until tomorrow, that's all I'd do. I'd wait until at least tomorrow before doing anything further. Generally, I'll wait another entire day too.

 

[My15Ducks]

Another thing you can do is check the egg for bruising outside the air cell. Sometimes the duckling will try to pip outside the air cell and that can leave a dark bruised mark on the shell

 

[Sivory]

Thank you. It managed to come out over night on its own. It has a deformed beak, almost like a sore on top of its beak over one nare but it doesn’t seem to go all the way through.
It’s very small and seems to not be able to keep up with the others, the others are splashing in water and this one is exhausted by it and just wants to sleep. I’ll keep making sure it’s warm & eats & drinks & I’ll give it some electrolytes