So how important is it turn turn duck eggs in the last 5 days? My son has his Brinsea mini adv at school with all 7 eggs still growing well and set to hatch Wed May 18th. We'd never hatched duck eggs before and so they set the eggs Wed morning so I wouldn't have to worry about stragglers still hatching afterschool on Friday. Well, since we set those eggs at school my eggs at home have been hatching on day 26 & 27 with only a couple stragglers hatching on day 28. The plan had been for my son to do Lockdown first thing on Monday the 16th but now I'm worried about the turner because Monday is day 26 so they could already be hatching!! Now I would feel better if he did lockdown on Friday and removed the turner then but I'm wondering if stopping turning those extra 2 days early is ok? Having them pip early at home is no big deal since I hand turn but his turner the floor moves in circle every 45mins and I'm afraid of the floor moving if they're pipping or if they actually get out early with the floor and other eggs moving every 45mins since it'll be the weekend with no one to see the pipped eggs. Any opinions or thoughts would be very appreciated! Maybe it's just my home incubator getting them to pip early so maybe I'm worrying about nothing

I would think it would be safer for the eggs and ducklings to not turn them for the last 5 days instead of risking a duckling getting caught in the turner.
The turning I believe is critical in the first part of incubating when the embryo is floating around and you dont want them to get stuck to the side of the shell, stopping turning a couple days early shouldnt hurt them at this point.
I just had a muscovy hatch, forgot about it since they take an extra week over my other ducks, so it never got much attention for a week and when I went to load up some eggs into the bator there it was looking at me.

Thanx Hidden I've been stopping turning when I notice a pip or peep here as I'd think movement at that point would be more detrimental than helpful.... I just wasn't sure how necessary the movement is in the last couple days before they pip. I also wasn't expecting all 7 eggs to make it this far so I hope they have enough room to hatch!!!!

Just wanted to say Thank you Hidden River! With your help I made the right decision and my son pulled the turner out on friday afterschool. We found a whole bunch of pipped and peeping eggs on Monday morning and this morning (tuesday) 5 ducklings had already hatched out! The last 2 eggs (another breed that seems to hatch on time) is pipping and hopefully 2 more ducklings will be hatched tomorrow morning So Thanx again for your help It was an extremely full bator this morning I will post pics later

Congrats on the hatch!!

Congrats! Glad my information was good. I would love pictures of the duckies when you get a chance, I can only imagine how full that incubator must be.