Help! I opened my incubator during lockdown. Will my ducklings be okay?

[Georgina Fritznoodle]

One duckling out!

 

[Nannette114]

Yay!
I know I haven't messaged before but I've been following with interest!
I'm so pleased on you new little one!

 

[richergirl10]

Hi. This is my first time incubating eggs. I put eight duck eggs into the incubator. On day 25 they were all alive and moving, so I put them into lockdown. But, I was concerned because the air cells were small in all of the eggs except for two(less than 1/4 of the egg). On day 29 I hadn't seen any movement from any of the eggs and hadn't heard any noise. I figured they had been unable to hatch due to poor air cell development. I got really nervous and opened the incubator. I candled one egg and saw that the duckling had pipped internally and was still moving. I quickly put it back and closed the incubator. Do you think the duckling will still hatch, or did the sudden drop in humidity likely kill the duckling? It's been twelve hours since I candled it and still no movement, noise, or signs of external pip. Should I keep waiting or should I candle the egg again?

Hi! I hatched four recently, and we took the eggs out for candling a few times and had to open the incubator to take out hatchlings, and mine are all fine! Our incubator was cheap too, so I don't think you have much to worry about thankfully! Hope this helps xx

 

[Georgina Fritznoodle]

Thanks! Four of my ducklings have hatched now. I'm waiting on a fifth now that may end up needing help getting out of the egg, but we'll see. Everything I read online said not to open the incubator under any circumstances during lockdown, so I got a little nervous that I had harmed the ducklings by doing so. I'll be less worried about it next time though.