Hi All, I’ve been lurking on BYC for months but this is my first post. We have 10 Welsh Harlequin and 5 domestic mallard eggs that were set in a still air incubator together 27 days ago. Tonight will start day 28. We’ve been weighing the eggs and targeting 14% weight loss, which has proved tough as the mallards lose weight faster than the WH. We mostly ran humidity at 45% with daily spraying or room temp cooling for 1/2 hr. I stopped cooling/spraying the mallards 1+ week ago when I decided that they were losing too much water. At the last weighing, mallards had lost slightly more than ideal and WH had lost about 1% egg weight less than ideal. Eggs have been candled and developed normally. On day 24, I noticed while weighing that a mallard had internally pipped (quick candle), so started lockdown Day 24, raised RH to 65%. On Day 25-26, noticed external pips on mallards. External pips on most WH noted Day 27. No zipping of mallards, whereas some WH trying to zip but not progressing since last night (about 16 hr now). After hearing tapping and peeping all night (don’t know if it was mallard or WH) but seeing no progress, I took the mallards out this AM, Day 27, 36-60 hr after external pips. I feared that they were “shrink wrapped” or desiccated, since the mallards has lost more weight than ideal. However, all five mallards were alive, positioned with bill at the pip (one on narrow end), tapped and cheeped back to me. I enlarged the pips a little and confirmed no membranes sticking to chicks. No blood vessels seen in visible membranes. Membrane around pip was fairly dry, but that seems normal after being pipped for so long. Since the mallards have a shorter incubation time than the WH, could they be waiting for a signal from the WH to zip? I moistened the mallard membranes and raised humidity to 75%. Should I leave them or chip some more shell a few times a day? Note that we are looking for pets/layers and not robust breeding stock. Thanks for any help!!!
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