is it ok to begin 'lockdown' early?

[pia11]

2nd time around incubating duck eggs in a still air incubator. Day 23 there was internal piping in about 5 eggs out of 12. I kind of freaked out, and dropped the temp to 98.5 and raised the humidity to 80%! We're at day 25 and we hear peeping and pecking, but no external pips yet.
any opinions on whether I jumped the gun? I have resisted the urge to open the incubator and candle again - and will sit on my hands until... ?
The first hatch we did our humidity levels were too high - (why is there so much misinformation out there on prominent sites about relative humidity!!!!!!!), this time around the babies seem to be doing everything on target - but the early internal pips have thrown me for a loop!
Any help would be appreciated!

 

[FireTigeris]

What kind of Duck eggs?

I've locked down a mixed hatch early and it went ok.

((different opinions on humidity because different climates can dry eggs out even inside in different ways))

 

[pia11]

Indian Runners. 3 are local (not shipped) and definitely not cooking before I got them(non of their hens sit on eggs), 9 were shipped from California (I believe). From a large farm (i wouldn't imagine any had begun to incubate before shipping - and even if they had - I stored them for about 5 days before beginning incubation.

 

[pia11]

any other thoughts would be much appreciated!


regarding the mixed hatch - how early was early for lockdown?
Thanks!

 

[FireTigeris]

Look up 'staggered hatch'

 

[pia11]

OK, I did look up 'staggered hatch' - but did not find anything that pertains to this question. Perhaps I missed something...
I did not stagger this hatch - all eggs went in at the same time, and at day 7 candling time, they all looked to be around the same level of development. they were all progressing through incubation at about the same rate - it was just a big surprise to candle on Tuesday evening and find some external pips!

sorry, maybe Im being dense - this may just be lockdown jitters - we had a pretty bad scene here last time around (three little girls waiting for duckies!)
thank you!

 

[FireTigeris]

Ok, based on all of that I'd just leave them in lockdown- be sure you have a way to add water w/o opening the lid.

(or like me a way to make the room extra humid and hot first.)

 

[pia11]

Thank you so much! So crazy how stressful this last stretch is!