Duck eggs already pipped on Monday, not due to hatch until Friday!

[MrsU]

SOS!! I have duck eggs in a borrowed incubator that you cannot see through. I opened the incubator today to candle them and 3 out of 6 have pipped already! Today is Monday; they are not due to hatch until Friday. They are not on lockdown and I will have to open the incubator again to either move them to the other incubator for hatching or remove the turning tray. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Did I royally screw up by opening/candling the pipped eggs?

 

[Lemon-Drop]

Are they internally or externally pipped? Usually you don't want to open the incubator, because they can get shrink wrapped. Hopefully the membrane didn't dry out too much.

I'm not an expert on duck eggs, what type are they? I think sometimes different breeds of ducks hatch earlier/later than others.

Do you have a second thermometer/hygrometer in the incubator? Sometimes the temperature is too high, and that can be a problem.

What incubator is it? Pictures?

 

[BelovedBirds]

SOS!! I have duck eggs in a borrowed incubator that you cannot see through. I opened the incubator today to candle them and 3 out of 6 have pipped already! Today is Monday; they are not due to hatch until Friday. They are not on lockdown and I will have to open the incubator again to either move them to the other incubator for hatching or remove the turning tray. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Did I royally screw up by opening/candling the pipped eggs?

Internal or external pip? They'll probably be okay, but ideally you shouldn't open the incubator after an external pip.
Ducks are slow hatchers, so keep that in mind. This could happen early for lots of reasons, do you have a calibrated thermometer?
Are the eggs call ducks? They tend to hatch around day 26 I believe.
Go ahead and lock them down, anyway.

 

[MrsU]

They are external pips. It is a MagicFly incubator (it's one of the ones that has the turning tray that slowly rolls back and forth). It was loaned to me. I do not have a secondary therm/hygro, but candling has shown development progressing normally. I'm going to get my Brinsea Mini Advance set up and put them into lockdown in there. Hopefully, I can do it without causing too much damage. I'll make sure to get the humidity up as quickly as possible. Fingers crossed no one gets shrink-wrapped. I'm not sure what else to do.

 

[MrsU]

Internal or external pip? They'll probably be okay, but ideally you shouldn't open the incubator after an external pip.
Ducks are slow hatchers, so keep that in mind. This could happen early for lots of reasons, do you have a calibrated thermometer?
Are the eggs call ducks? They tend to hatch around day 26 I believe.
Go ahead and lock them down, anyway.

External pip! They are a mixture of breeds, but all "should be" 28-day hatchers, so I was totally cavalier about whipping off the incubator lid to candle them earlier. None of them should've been pipping.

 

[BelovedBirds]

External pip! They are a mixture of breeds, but all "should be" 28-day hatchers, so I was totally cavalier about whipping off the incubator lid to candle them earlier. None of them should've been pipping.

It sounds like the incubator is a little warmer than it should be, next time, always use a calibrated thermometer, in fact, the more thermometers the better! Incubators are usually inaccurate. A slightly warmer incubation can cause slightly faster development-
get the turner off and get them into lockdown as soon as you possibly can, but don't stress too much about opening the incubator to do so, they will likely be fine. The only real concern is shrink wrapping, and that's honestly pretty rare. I know some hatchers on here who open their incubators regularly through lockdown with great hatch rates.
Personally I leave them be as much as I can- but that isnt always possible! So don't worry too much!

 

[MrsU]

It sounds like the incubator is a little warmer than it should be, next time, always use a calibrated thermometer, in fact, the more thermometers the better! Incubators are usually inaccurate. A slightly warmer incubation can cause slightly faster development-
get the turner off and get them into lockdown as soon as you possibly can, but don't stress too much about opening the incubator to do so, they will likely be fine. The only real concern is shrink wrapping, and that's honestly pretty rare. I know some hatchers on here who open their incubators regularly through lockdown with great hatch rates.
Personally I leave them be as much as I can- but that isnt always possible! So don't worry too much!

When I open to put them on lockdown should I mist the shells to help with humidity?

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

When I open to put them on lockdown should I mist the shells to help with humidity?

You don't want to get water into the pips. You don't want them to aspirate on the water and drown.

 

[HeatherKellyB]

To bring humidity up quickly during hatching, I like to use a kitchen sponge and I keep it in a little tray inside the incubator. You can run it under warm water and squeeze out excess, then add water as needed. Like BB&T mentioned, you don't want to get water inside the pip and having multiple pips would make it difficult to mist while avoiding all pips.

 

[BelovedBirds]

External pip! They are a mixture of breeds, but all "should be" 28-day hatchers, so I was totally cavalier about whipping off the incubator lid to candle them earlier. None of them should've been pipping.

what happened in the end? How are things going?