Thank you, Julie.

This story actually has a very amusing twist. My mallard hen was sitting on a batch of infertile eggs. I purchased a couple of fertile duck eggs from Metzer Farms. I placed the eggs underneath and she sat on them for about a week. One day, she was no longer interested in sitting, and she simply abandoned the nest. I candled them and realized that Shamus' egg was growing. My husband and I put together a makeshift incubator. Shamus hatched a few weeks later. The mother duck was actually Natasha! Shamus' mate actually sat on his egg for a week.