Help! duck egg day 29, no pipping - pic included... getting anxious

[Ducknewb_22]

hi All!

My first post here tho I’ve been lurking for a while! I have a duck egg I found next to my bird feeder 29 days ago. Kind of made a make shift incubator and it’s been developing just as shown on a duck egg candling graphic I found online.

Tho I dare say I’ve been pretty good bout keeping it warm and moist- it’s pretty hard to be super consistent in a shoebox. About 4 days ago I moved it to my bath and set it up
With a warm mist humidifier keeping temps as between 92-99 degrees and last 3 days humidity varies 55-80%, no signs of internal pipping yet... should I just be patient and let it play out? I did the water candling yesterday and it was good tho I saw no movement but i also didn’t keep It in the water very long for fear of doing harm... I’m being a nervous Nellie. I could use some advice. Should Air sac side be up? It’s laying almost horizontal.

Here’s pic from

 

[chickens really]

Hello. Being it's in a homemade incubator. It possibly will take longer to hatch than the normal incubation time. Don't put a safety hole in the shell until it has internally pipped. You waited this long, keep waiting.

 

[WVduckchick]

Seriously I’m at work and all I can do is think about that egg!! Like is it warm enough? Maybe it’s too warm! Hope there’s enough humidity or maybe too much... or maybe it pipped and needs help or??? Or?? Must ...stop thinking

You’ve got the bug. Bad.
(I have chicks hatching today and I’m at work too, so we can commiserate)

 

[Ducknewb_22]

Yes, be patient. I'm the most impatient person in the world!!!!! When I was waiting for mine to hatch I set my alarm every hour on day 28 ( I have mallards ) to check on them I didn't get much sleep for 2 days til they hatched plus I paced so much I thought I was going to wear my shoes out, but it's all worth it in the end.. I agree with the other post, u should sing to it, I did with mine!!!! GoodLuck, Keeping my fingers crossed for u

I had a sweet little mallard couple that would swim in our pool every day! They were so cute them she had 6 babies and once they were a few days old she took them swimming in our pool- unfortunately our pool Has a lip and they were too little to get out by themselves. I saw them and fished them all out safely! Momma was screaming at first running back and forth till she saw what i was doing / once she saw I was releasing them where they could run go here she waited until I got all 6 out! She never took them swimming in there again tho

 

[Ducknewb_22]

Hold the egg to your ear.

I heard him peep a few times this morning’ yeah!

 

[Ducknewb_22]

Today is day 31, I water candled today and it wiggled! Yeah I’m super pumped because I was so worried the little bugger might have been deceased! So more waiting!! I’ve figured out how to be more consistent with the humidity & that seems to have helped progress.

No pip yet, but I’ll try to take a picture later if there’s any more progress- it’s only drawn down maybe 2cm more than last night’s picture but I’m really hoping for internal pip soon, at least I hope for one.

 

[WVduckchick]

Looking good. I agree with the others that said wait. Ducklings try our patience and make us wait an extremely long time in our minds. But they need that time! You’ve done great so far. Pay no attention to the calendar now. And please don’t do another water test.
Hang in there!

 

[Ducknewb_22]

No new progress as of 5:40pm EST. I’m going to take my boys to karate, go for a Run, make dinner, then hopefully I will have some progress to report!

 

[Ducknewb_22]

Seriously I’m at work and all I can do is think about that egg!! Like is it warm enough? Maybe it’s too warm! Hope there’s enough humidity or maybe too much... or maybe it pipped and needs help or??? Or?? Must ...stop thinking

 

[Ducknewb_22]

Newest photo