I have 6 mallard duck eggs on lockdown and to begin with I'm so scared! There was a 7 day window of not knowing exactly what day(s) they were all in the nest but Mom was seen sitting on them one day and next morning it appeared an animal had attacked her and killed her. Purchased a Kebonnixs incubator. 4 days ago put them in lockdown after reading volumes here and decided to be safe vs. sorry as many folk mentioned a few extra days in lockdown are fine. Had temp set to 99.5 until this morning and humidity at 55% until the last couple of days when I raised to 70%. One egg has been rocking here and there for a couple of those days and this morning I heard a peeping but not much rocking. I adjusted the humidity up to 77% or so but then it went up to 80% quickly so I kept cracking the lid to bring it back down. Also lowered the temperature to 98.5 as recommended. After this I-think-I'm-going-to-be-sick and elevated heart rate in my chest I noticed one of the eggs had an external pip. Must have happened overnight. Have I done damage opening and closing the lid? I can induce a rocking motion on another egg that I don't see an internal pip on when I hit the menu button on top (must wake it up) but not much else. Please advise! Also, no movement from the external pip egg. I don't know if I should take the lid off to get the egg to check for trouble or not. If I should, what about the humidity and temp loss, even if temporary as in under 15 seconds? So appreciate any input and sunshine vibes your all's way... Tagging @WVduckchick as I see them recommended a lot here.
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