Lockdown help ASAP!!

[Duckmom1]

This is my first hatch ever. I have 12 mallard eggs due the 18th but 2 of my eggs have internally pipped. Do I move my lockdown date up or not? If not when should I go into lockdown? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[croach510]

Go ahead and put them in lockdown. You need to get the humidity up so they dont shrink wrap when they externally pip. A couple of days early is not going to hurt them. By this time they have lost enough moister that the air cells should be fine. Good Luck on your hatch and keep us posted.

 

[Duckmom1]

Thank you so much for responding! I can't ell you how anxious I've been. I was also wondering if I should be a ble to hear them when they are internally pipped? I can feel them tapiping on the egg.

 

[Habibs Hens]

just a thought

the eggs piping warly is supposed to mean too high temp and possible you can get deformaties

for future might be an idea to look at your thermometer and colaberate it so you can get a better and more stable temp

 

[Duckmom1]

I was worried about that too. Mallards supposedly hatch earlier than other ducks which makes my hatch date Thursday so maybe they aren't that early. Hopefully the little guy\girl is just excited to meet his new momma

 

[SallysCrazyFarm]

My mallards usually hatch on day 26 vs my other domestics on day 28. And the larger my mallards are, the longer they take to hatch (28 days). But my average/small sized mallards always hatch on day 26. This has been my experience. And sometimes they internally pip 1-3 days before I see an external pip.

 

[Sphinx]

I agree with the previous poster, if they're internally pipped, I would definitely put them into lockdown.

Good luck, I hope you have a great hatch.

 

[croach510]

Once they have internally pipped, you can hear very faint peepn coming from the egg. If I tap on my bator I can sometimes hear them. Once you have them in lockdown, don't open the bator unless you have an emergency, it lets out alot of the humidity and can cause the chicks to shrink wrap. Can't wait to see pics when they get here. Good Luck.

 

[Duckmom1]

Thank you for all of the advice! I'm having a very hard time wih the humidity. My incubator is a little giant still air and I have filled all the channels have 2 sponges in the bottom along with six bottoms of paper cups filled. Also on the top I have wet paper towels along the edge of the incubator an two more wet sponges. I have misted the incubator with warm water and with all of this my humidity is only 60% I really want it to be around 70% but I don't know what else to do. I'm starting to think its my hygrometer that's the problem.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm not familiar with the Little Giant so I can't give any specific advice. With my Hovabator I failed to get the lid on properly once. The temperature held fine but that dropped the humidity several percentage points. You might check that your lid is on right. It is also possible that your hygrometer is not reading right. Have you tried to calibrate it?

Rebel’s Hygrometer Calibration
http://cmfarm.us/HygrometerCalibration.html

I stuck some of those straws with accordian joints together so I can go in through a vent hole and reach my water reservoirs to add water without opening the incubator. I got a syringe from Tractor Supply to put water in the straw.



Good luck!!! It sound like you are well on the way!!!