Duck eggs peeping- Should I lock down early?

[NoseyChickens]

I have duck eggs due to go into lockdown tomorrow. But I can hear them peeping inside the egg. Should I go ahead and lock own now?

 

[nivtup]

If they are peeping they have pipped into the air cell, so yes I would.

 

[NoseyChickens]

Quote:
Well crud I went back literally 10 minutes later to add water to up the humidity and when I opened the lid I saw a huge pip that was not there before. I had noticed the peeping when I turned the eggs so I know the pip was not there before. SHOOT! I hope they will still hatch. They aren't due until Sunday.

 

[FenDruadin]

Yup, lock down immediately. And don't stress too much over the one that already pipped. Just get that humidity up and wait. Most ducks don't end up having problems, and it has plenty of time to re-moisturize the membrane before it will be ready to hatch anyway. Remember that 24-48 hours from pip to hatch is normal. Record when each one pips so you'll know how long it's been. Even if the pipped one does get stuck, it's usually not fatal. If it hasn't hatched yet three days later, you just go ahead and help it out and, assuming there wasn't something wrong with it to begin with, it should be fine. People stress about the humidity, but being stuck is really the least of the bad things that can go wrong. Don't get me wrong--I obsess over the humidity at the end too, because I would prefer NOT to have to help them out of the shell. But I've never actually lost one due to being stuck.

Good luck! I think they'll do just fine.

 

[NoseyChickens]

I just checked another egg is pipped, humidity is looking good. I'm just going to sit back and relax about it. (yeah right.) But I'm not worried about having opened the lid anymore, clearly it didn't mess anything up.