What settings for lockdown?

[Little Cute Lily]

So these are the 4. On the 2 larger eggs the air sac definitely a lot bigger, and I think I see a bill in one of them. The 2 smaller eggs aren't quite as dark, and I can still see veins, so still lock them all down at same time? I'm on day 21 so guess 2 days until lockdown? Bator is at 37.5C and humidity around 45% (running dry except for misting, we have a whole house humidifier and it's been raining lots). Do they look on track? Thanks!!!
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My air cells were bigger but then again they weren't call ducks. Definitely lockdown all of them at the same time but keep an eye on them. If the air cell is too small they might be developing big and have trouble getting into hatching position. These were my air cells and the size of the ducklings when they first hatched. The fourth picture is the 4th duckling who didn't develop as fast, you can see the egg is more bloody but luckily he's happy and healthy and the same size as his siblings now. One of my eggs was nearly half the size as one of my bigger eggs and you can see in the fifth picture although they hatched near the same time, one duckling is noticeably bigger than the tiny one. All of them are healthy though. I ran my humidity average 40%.

 

[AngeJD]

Ok - I'm nowhere near that size for the air cells! I'm maybe 1/4...but nothing else I can do since I'm running the bator dry. Keep misting I guess! Ok - hoping lots happen in the next 2-3 days before I lock down on Wednesday (maybe Thursday?), since hatch day is Saturday. Fingers crossed - your khakis are adorable!

 

[Little Cute Lily]

Ok - I'm nowhere near that size for the air cells! I'm maybe 1/4...but nothing else I can do since I'm running the bator dry. Keep misting I guess! Ok - hoping lots happen in the next 2-3 days before I lock down on Wednesday (maybe Thursday?), since hatch day is Saturday. Fingers crossed - your khakis are adorable!

Thank you very much. They poop a LOT but they're adorable so it's okay. I was researching call duck eggs and some take the whole 28 days to hatch, some hatch on 26, some on day 27. These little guys really do like to vary AND have short bills that make it hard to hatch. They make my khaki campbells look like a walk in the park. My air cells were bigger than average, my humidity always dipped to 25-30% when I slept. I once woke up to the humidity at 20%, it was a struggle but luckily the babies just made do with smaller space. Don't freak out too much about the air cell size, but I would go on lockdown early Thursday just so they have a bit more time to wiggle around. Here's a picture of the air cell 12 days before hatching. I did look up some call duck egg candling pics and they do look much smaller like yours. The second picture is what I found online of a call duck egg at day 25. They're nearly the same size as mine at day 16!

 

[AngeJD]

Relieved!! I was just starting to google putting in dessicant or whatever those little silica packs are in the bator! LOL

 

[Little Cute Lily]

Relieved!! I was just starting to google putting in dessicant or whatever those little silica packs are in the bator! LOL

I'm glad I was able to help! Sounds like something I'd do lol, I get worried even when my duckling sneezes. You seem to be doing a great job though keeping humidity and temperature constant and controlled. You're gonna be a great duckling parent!

 

[AngeJD]

So....this just happened, literally overnight, on only 1 of the eggs. The others still have pretty small air cells, not much different than the pics I posted, and one egg looks like it might be a late quitter...no movement, and the veins are very dark/black and the edges look a tad fuzzy. But I'll keep it in there anyway and hope for the best, but doubt it'll hatch, it was one of the smaller ones. The one in the pic shows a lot of shadowing and I can see the bill pushing against the membrane, so I'm debating going into lockdown today (day 23, since I set early AM on March 29), even though the other eggs look like they're another day or two behind....

 

[Little Cute Lily]

So....this just happened, literally overnight, on only 1 of the eggs. The others still have pretty small air cells, not much different than the pics I posted, and one egg looks like it might be a late quitter...no movement, and the veins are very dark/black and the edges look a tad fuzzy. But I'll keep it in there anyway and hope for the best, but doubt it'll hatch, it was one of the smaller ones. The one in the pic shows a lot of shadowing and I can see the bill pushing against the membrane, so I'm debating going into lockdown today (day 23, since I set early AM on March 29), even though the other eggs look like they're another day or two behind....View attachment 2626330

Looks like the air cell dipped but is still intact and I see no blood ring. I wouldn't worry too much. Could be an overachiever. However, it is way better to lockdown LATE than early. High humidity is only good when they're trying to get out of their shell. If it's too high while they're still developing they can get sticky or shrink wrapped. "Sticky" is like shrink wrapped but happens when the humidity was too high. Shrink wrapped is when the humidity is too low. Lockdown on a day that is best for the majority of the eggs. Also remember that the first 1-2 days of lockdown is important so the eggs are not rotated and they can get into hatching position. In nature its not like the momma duck or chicken knows to up the humidity, but they leave their babies alone and don't rotate them with their beak. "Lockdown" is more "Hey human! Don't touch us until hatching day!" Mine were technically not on lockdown for 3 days, it was more so 2.5 days and they are thriving!

 

[AngeJD]

The pic in the post isn't the potential quitter - it's the one where the air cell was half the size only 24 hours ago! And when I went to go spritz them just now, the one I thought was the quitter was WOBBLING, so definitely something in there! I have a hovabator still air being delivered today that I was planning on using for lockdown and hatch, guess it's time to get that set up and calibrated! I miscalculated on my hatch day - since I set early morning on March 29, hatch date is actually this Friday, April 23 for the 26 days. So getting there - lockdown should be tomorrow then for 3 days! I'm going to give the other 3 some time to catch up. I took them off the auto turner this morning and going to turn by hand today before lockdown! The waiting is crazy.

 

[AngeJD]

I went in to give the eggs a spritz and the egg with the large air cell wobbled and rolled around! I ran for my flashlight, and lo and behold, it had internally pipped! No clue when it had pipped, so I made a small safety hole, and gave them one big spritz, and put them all on lockdown, even though I knew that the other three were looking about a day or so behind (today is day 24 in about 4 hours).

I have upped the humidity to 65%, and since my hovabator didn't arrive today, I borrowed my friends Farm Innovators 4250 to use as my hatcher, since it has these water channels for me to add water in without having to open up the bator to add water. This bator though she says is notorious for not getting up to temp or holding, luckily I was able to run it for 6 hours before this pip happened. I need to tell my friend that wrapping a towel around it got it hold steady, though I have it set at 103 with two calibrated thermometers showing it to be 98.3-98.5 (close enough). Hoping I don't have to assist, since I was ready to have a breakdown just putting the safety hole in, I was nervous and didn't apply enough pressure, so it took me a good 5 minutes or so. Looks like I may have a duckling ready to come out a little early, while its siblings are probably going to be closer to due date this Friday.

If it does come, and dries off - ok to open up the bator to take it to the brooder after it dries off, or wait til the rest of them come???

 

[Little Cute Lily]

I went in to give the eggs a spritz and the egg with the large air cell wobbled and rolled around! I ran for my flashlight, and lo and behold, it had internally pipped! No clue when it had pipped, so I made a small safety hole, and gave them one big spritz, and put them all on lockdown, even though I knew that the other three were looking about a day or so behind (today is day 24 in about 4 hours).

I have upped the humidity to 65%, and since my hovabator didn't arrive today, I borrowed my friends Farm Innovators 4250 to use as my hatcher, since it has these water channels for me to add water in without having to open up the bator to add water. This bator though she says is notorious for not getting up to temp or holding, luckily I was able to run it for 6 hours before this pip happened. I need to tell my friend that wrapping a towel around it got it hold steady, though I have it set at 103 with two calibrated thermometers showing it to be 98.3-98.5 (close enough). Hoping I don't have to assist, since I was ready to have a breakdown just putting the safety hole in, I was nervous and didn't apply enough pressure, so it took me a good 5 minutes or so. Looks like I may have a duckling ready to come out a little early, while its siblings are probably going to be closer to due date this Friday.

If it does come, and dries off - ok to open up the bator to take it to the brooder after it dries off, or wait til the rest of them come???

I took mine out of the incubator 10 hours after they hatched and into the brooder. I opened the incubator several times in those 10 hours as once they started hatching, the humidity was sky rocketing and I wanted to make sure they got enough air. My incubator is small, so even tho one egg still had to hatch, the humidity of my incubator became 85% once the 3 ducklings hatched (it was originally at 65%) My incubator was definitely more sensitive and the smallest amount of water added would up the humidity quite a bit. With bigger incubators I really wouldn't worry about them suffocating, or the humidity getting too high. It's best to leave the incubator alone and not open so much to make sure you don't get any shrink wrapped eggs. Again, my incubator was a cheap $40 incubator off eBay. One of the ducklings from the big egg would stand up and his head would touch the ceiling of my incubator. Congratulations on the internal pip! Keep an eye on the egg, sometimes when a safety hole is made they get lazy and don't want to zip and hatch. Pretty much they're like oh cool there's already a hole I can breathe from so I'll take a vacation.