EGGCITING EXPERIENCE

It all started with a phone call from Marilyn asking if I could take in a clutch of 15 duck eggs that had to be moved because the eggs had been laid at a service station which was in the middle of being redeveloped. The workmen had done all they could around the mother duck hoping the eggs would hatch but could not delay work any longer.

At home the incubator was warming, an old kerosene incubator that my wonderful husband has adapted to run off electricity.

The next morning we candled the eggs and judging by the stage they were at they would be due to hatch in about a week. Six days later it was my sons 8th birthday and to add to the excitement six of the eggs had started to hatch, of course none of the kids wanted to leave the party. We got up the next morning to one already hatched, another one half way out of the shell and within two hours another six were hatched and drying off. The last egg did not hatch till that afternoon.

Nine very healthy black ducklings are now in the brooder, making a huge mess and eating me out of house and home, It's a shame that in the end only nine hatched but considering the distance the eggs were transported at such a late stage of their development we were lucky to have nine hatch.

NOTE: It is an illegal offence to remove any native eggs from the wild unless in danger without prior consent from N.P.W.S.