Duck Egg

[lapster]

Hi all!

Over Easter weekend, I found what I believe is a duck egg in a dried up lake area in Pennsylvania. It was simply sitting near a small pond. No nest, no signs of a mother duck besides a couple feathers a few feet away. So I picked it up and put it in my pocket. I was joking with my friend that I would incubate the egg and see if anything came of it; I honestly never expected anything to happen considering I found it on a 35 degree day and that was warm for that week!
I put the egg in a bowl with a damp towel under a heat lamp for a couple days, then candled it after about four days and saw blood vessels! Since then, we've seen even more development and now there's a dark little bean developing inside the egg. According to some charts we've looked at, we're about on day 9 or 10.
We're being smart about this, doing all the research. We built a homemade incubator from a styrofoam box. We're turning it four times a day and keeping the temperature and humidity at safe levels. We know what to feed the duckling once it hatches and how to care for it from there on out.
My main question is: what kinds of permits do I need to keep this little duck in my home?
I don't plan on acquiring anymore ducks. I have no idea what breed it is. I know to own Muscovy ducks in PA, you need to obtain a permit. However, I've never seen Muscovy ducks around my area, and I can't find any other information on required permits if you take an egg from the wild. I'll soon be renting an apartment in which I have to register any non-caged pets, so I want to be sure we don't get in any trouble for having this little guy. Can anyone help me out?

Thanks a lot!
LP

 

[Virus]

Duck and chicken eggs can survive for about 10 days without heat as long as it doesn't get too hot or too cold, the mother will lay an egg a day and once she has enough she sits on them, that's probably what happened. The first duck I got is a mallard drake that I also found as an egg and I've done a lot of research on this very thing. As far as I know, the only permits for wild ducks are if you either want to hunt or breed them for a business. You'll have to look into general laws a bout keeping ducks in your area to see if you need anything to keep ducks at all. The thing with wild ducks is you can keep them as long as you mark them as domestic otherwise it'll be thought you stole it from the local pond, they can be marked as long as they hatched in a domestic environment. The most common way to mark them is by removing one of their hind toes. I don't remember the other ways to mark them but I remember not liking any of them. I didn't mark mine because I didn't have the heart to hurt my little baby so he has all his toes, I think it's fine since I have photo proof and witnesses of him hatching in my care. Could post a pic of the egg while be candled, the pic for your avatar looks odd.