Here's my new Runner duckling, Pebbles - she hatched last night:
Unfortunately, it looks like she's a solo hatch. All 5 eggs were alive at lockdown, but I had humidity problems (too high) throughout the whole incubation period, and most of the babies ended up stuck in a bunch of excess egg goo. I ended up helping Pebbles hatch because she just couldn't maneuver around to do it herself.
I have 20 more eggs in the 'bator though, and I think I have the humidity under control now (there are two dehumidifiers running in the room, I never have any problems in the early spring, but it seems like I always have to have them running if I want to incubate during the summer
), because the air cells are looking much better on all those eggs.
Besides, I'm thrilled with Pebbles - she has a LOT of color dilution genes going on (dad's a Buff, mom's White but must be carrying some of her own dilution genes), so I'm excited to see how she feathers in - she's not yellow, more of a dusty lemon color, and the fuzz on her tail around her bum is a light, lavender-blue - she's much lighter than the last ducklings I hatched from the same pair of Runner parents. I think she'll end up looking sort of Splash or Lavender -
almost white.
