Please help! It's day 27 with no movement or internal pip from the duckling, what should I do?!

[Cocelean]

If you don't have a pre-calibrated thermometer and hygrometer inside there is always the chance of a delayed hatch. Candling it at this point is just risking shrink wrapping especially multiple times in one day. What has your humidity been during incubation and are your vents fully open? Do not poke holes in the egg especially since it has not internally pipped.

You will not hear anything until it has internally pipped. The air cell will draw down and appear larger shortly before it internally pips. Your humidity should be raised during lockdown to help the duckling break free from the membrane. Taking the egg out often will make it difficult to maintain the humidity. Do not poke any holes in the egg. That would only be for a duckling who internally pipped and then didn't make progress. (day 30 or 31 might be the time to consider that). Hatching takes patience.

I agree with @Yardmom. My duck eggs are on Day 26 and most of them still didn't internally pip yet. All you have to do is wait, cause I had a duck egg that internally pipped on day 29. Some ducklings are just late hatchers.

Thank you so much guys for replying! I'll stop taking the egg out now and wait till day 30 then (is it alright if I briefly lift the incubator to wet the cloths and top the trays?)

Even though I've read up on info constantly, actually going through the process is completely different, and the moment something isn't by the book you can't help but panic! Everywhere I looked, if the ducklings hadn't internally pipped at day 26, they would by day 27, or people would at least see movement or shadowing so I was getting more and more worried something was wrong with my duckling because it's just one solid blob of darkness. Hearing @DucksAreBest experience puts me at ease though, I hope he's just a lazy little guy lol and I see progress either tomorrow or day 29 !

My incubator doesn't have any vents - it does have a fan though and you can place the lid on these hinge thingies that create gaps for more airflow but I've kept the lid close completely.
During incubation I topped the water tray to the top every other day as the instructions said, and then before what should've been lockdown, I added a wet cloth on top of topping the tray with water and I also, yesterday, spritzed the egg after taking it out and candling as I'd seen someone suggest on a different thread for someone else, because I'd taken it out a few times already so I didn't want to affect the humidity or risk the inner membrane drying out too much.
There's been condensation on the lid (there was no condensation before that so I'm assuming the humidity was pretty low before and now it's higher) but there's the worry of the humidity being too much.

Oh, I've also read others drop the temperature around hatch day and that lower temperatures increase humidity but I don't know if I'm supposed to do that considering the delayed hatch?

 

[HollowOfWisps]

Thank you so much guys for replying! I'll stop taking the egg out now and wait till day 30 then (is it alright if I briefly lift the incubator to wet the cloths and top the trays?)

Even though I've read up on info constantly, actually going through the process is completely different, and the moment something isn't by the book you can't help but panic! Everywhere I looked, if the ducklings hadn't internally pipped at day 26, they would by day 27, or people would at least see movement or shadowing so I was getting more and more worried something was wrong with my duckling because it's just one solid blob of darkness. Hearing @DucksAreBest experience puts me at ease though, I hope he's just a lazy little guy lol and I see progress either tomorrow or day 29 !

My incubator doesn't have any vents - it does have a fan though and you can place the lid on these hinge thingies that create gaps for more airflow but I've kept the lid close completely.
During incubation I topped the water tray to the top every other day as the instructions said, and then before what should've been lockdown, I added a wet cloth on top of topping the tray with water and I also, yesterday, spritzed the egg after taking it out and candling as I'd seen someone suggest on a different thread for someone else, because I'd taken it out a few times already so I didn't want to affect the humidity or risk the inner membrane drying out too much.
There's been condensation on the lid (there was no condensation before that so I'm assuming the humidity was pretty low before and now it's higher)

Oh by the way, I've read others drop the temperature around hatch day and that lower temperatures increase humidity but I don't know if I'm supposed to do that considering the delayed hatch?

- Dropping the temperature is only for medium-large hatches and the reasoning behind it is that when multiple birds hatch their body temperature increases the overall incubator temperature so the incubator temperature is lowered to prevent overheating. With just one egg you will want to keep the temperature the same.

- For vents/ventilation you want as much as possible when hatching. You can actually suffocate a duckling in the egg by having an air right incubator and also from too high humidity you can drown it. When it comes to hatching there isn't an exact rule for when things happen especially since there are several factors at play. The instructions for the incubator are good for getting your incubator to function, but honestly other than that I wouldn't use it as a hatching guide.

-Where your air cell is on the egg is actually perfect for day 26-27 for duck eggs. I've actually found the best humidity is really dependant on your location and the ambient humidity of the room your incubator is in. When I lived on the east coast I dry hatched because it was an average of 90% humidity outside and around 60-70% in my house. If I added extra humidity to that I would have drowned my eggs. If there is condensation I would remove the sponge/cloth from your incubator since your egg is right on track and you don't want to risk drowning. Even at the end when I boost my humidity I don't like it to go over 65% and in reality I keep it more around 50-60% for "lockdown". The most accurate way to determine the best humidity for hatching is to use a gram scale to weigh your egg before, during and right before lockdown. Duck eggs should lose about 14% of in weight by day 25 lockdown and if you're off target too much you can adjust your humidity accordingly. Since we moved and the air is much drier here I have found keeping my incubator around 40-50% humidity works best for me here based on weighing eggs during incubation.

 

[Cocelean]

- Dropping the temperature is only for medium-large hatches and the reasoning behind it is that when multiple birds hatch their body temperature increases the overall incubator temperature so the incubator temperature is lowered to prevent overheating. With just one egg you will want to keep the temperature the same.

- For vents/ventilation you want as much as possible when hatching. You can actually suffocate a duckling in the egg by having an air right incubator and also from too high humidity you can drown it. When it comes to hatching there isn't an exact rule for when things happen especially since there are several factors at play. The instructions for the incubator are good for getting your incubator to function, but honestly other than that I wouldn't use it as a hatching guide.

-Where your air cell is on the egg is actually perfect for day 26-27 for duck eggs. I've actually found the best humidity is really dependant on your location and the ambient humidity of the room your incubator is in. When I lived on the east coast I dry hatched because it was an average of 90% humidity outside and around 60-70% in my house. If I added extra humidity to that I would have drowned my eggs. If there is condensation I would remove the sponge/cloth from your incubator since your egg is right on track and you don't want to risk drowning. Even at the end when I boost my humidity I don't like it to go over 65% and in reality I keep it more around 50-60% for "lockdown". The most accurate way to determine the best humidity for hatching is to use a gram scale to weigh your egg before, during and right before lockdown. Duck eggs should lose about 14% of in weight by day 25 lockdown and if you're off target too much you can adjust your humidity accordingly. Since we moved and the air is much drier here I have found keeping my incubator around 40-50% humidity works best for me here based on weighing eggs during incubation.

Oh that makes sense, thank goodness I kept the temperature the same! I'll remove the cloths in that case, I was worried the air cell was going too far back but if it's at the right place that's good - it just looked really big so I was worried things weren't going well!

I'm not really sure what humidity my room's at - I have three fish tanks in my room and it's 24°C with floor heating (is heated floors bad for ducklings?) because it's pretty cold so it's probably more humid than the rest of the house with all that water but I have no way of properly telling.

I didn't know I had to weigh the egg before - so I never did, I'll keep it in mind for the future!

When you say the egg should have as much ventilation when hatching, do you mean when the duckling first does an external pip? Or from day 25? And how much ventilation should it have without risking drying out the egg? This is the incubator I use:

This is what I meant about the hinges thing, no idea what they're called - usually the backside winds up having a gap because the lid curves in wards so it sits in front of that and doesn't close properly - you have to pull the lid out and push it over to close it properly, but the gap isn't that big.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

You don't have to weigh the eggs and many people don't, but it is the most accurate way to gauge how much humidity your eggs require. As for ventilation usually incubators all have some sort of vent. If it's labeled as ventilation in your instruction manual when you set it up on the hinges then that must be the only vent it has. This is what the vents look like on the nurture right 360 I normally use. In the instructions it tells you to only open it part way, but eggs require more air and I always hatch with it open all of the way (a retired avian vet gave me that bit of info about always having the vents open 100% during the full incubation period). How big is the gap when it's up on the hinges?

 

[Cocelean]

You don't have to weigh the eggs and many people don't, but it is the most accurate way to gauge how much humidity your eggs require. As for ventilation usually incubators all have some sort of vent. If it's labeled as ventilation in your instruction manual when you set it up on the hinges then that must be the only vent it has. This is what the vents look like on the nurture right 360 I normally use. In the instructions it tells you to only open it part way, but eggs require more air and I always hatch with it open all of the way (a retired avian vet gave me that bit of info about always having the vents open 100% during the full incubation period). How big is the gap when it's up on the hinges?
View attachment 2928343

Sorry about the late reply! I've been turning the house upside down looking for the manual but I can't seem to find it, I have no idea where I put it, but it wasn't very helpful and I don't think it mentioned those hinges as the vents. The gap opens this wide - I'm not sure if this picture's very helpful:

There's also four water outlet holes at the bottom so I can only fill the water tray to a certain level.

Should I leave it open starting now?

Oh and an update! I saw movement inside the egg this morning! The duckling still hasn't internally pipped yet but now I'm certain it's alive!

 

[HollowOfWisps]

Sorry about the late reply! I've been turning the house upside down looking for the manual but I can't seem to find it, I have no idea where I put it, but it wasn't very helpful and I don't think it mentioned those hinges as the vents. The gap opens this wide - I'm not sure if this picture's very helpful:
View attachment 2928923
View attachment 2928924
There's also four water outlet holes at the bottom so I can only fill the water tray to a certain level.

Should I leave it open starting now?

Oh and an update! I saw movement inside the egg this morning! The duckling still hasn't internally pipped yet but now I'm certain it's alive!

If there is no other form of ventilation then I would keep it cracked a little. Hatching itself requires quite a bit of oxygen due to the energy expenditure and if there isn't sufficient oxygen they suffocate.

 

[Kellyjenny]

I put mine halfway you want the humidity to be good. fiddle with it usually you start halfway if it humidity goes down you had to close it just a little bit so it go' backup. If it goes up you just open it just a little bit more.

 

[Cocelean]

I put mine halfway you want the humidity to be good. fiddle with it usually you start halfway if it humidity goes down you had to close it just a little bit so it go' backup. If it goes up you just open it just a little bit more.

I can't really measure the humidity because my incubator doesn't have a meter so I can't tell how much it goes down or up by - but I'll keep the incubator slightly open to allow air to circulate even if it's just a little bitm

Also! I think the duckling internally pipped? I'm not hundred percent but there's this darker bit that comes and goes from the surface so I think that it might be the beak. I don't hear any peeping though so I'm a bit worried about that, and if maybe the movement might just be me moving the egg and causing something to move or moving the torch and causing shadows to move, I'm not sure. I spritzed the egg with lukewarm water to keep it from drying when I took it out. The bottom left bit is a shadow inside the egg - not the dirt outside.

It doesn't really show up clearly in the pictures:

 

[Cocelean]

I see a small crack! But it's on the wrong side and hasn't broken through
What do I do?? Should I assist with that small dent to make sure he's getting air? Because I have no idea when it was made

 

[BelovedBirds]

I can't really measure the humidity because my incubator doesn't have a meter so I can't tell how much it goes down or up by - but I'll keep the incubator slightly open to allow air to circulate even if it's just a little bitm

Also! I think the duckling internally pipped? I'm not hundred percent but there's this darker bit that comes and goes from the surface so I think that it might be the beak. I don't hear any peeping though so I'm a bit worried about that, and if maybe the movement might just be me moving the egg and causing something to move or moving the torch and causing shadows to move, I'm not sure. I spritzed the egg with lukewarm water to keep it from drying when I took it out. The bottom left bit is a shadow inside the egg - not the dirt outside.

It doesn't really show up clearly in the pictures:
View attachment 2929531
View attachment 2929533

I'm no expert but that looks look an internal pip to me, I know its hard to leave it be, it's pretty stressful first hatch- but I think for now yoi should leave it in the incubator- Is there anywhere you could get a hygrometer? It's pretty important to have one, multiple would be even better! Same thing with thermometers, cant always trust the incubators readings!
Hope the hatch goes okay, I have my fingers crossed for you both