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. There was no nest, no signs of a mother duck besides some feathers a few feet away. So I picked it up and put it in my pocket. I joked with my friend that I'd incubate the egg and see if anything came of it. I honestly never expected anything to happen, especially since I found it on a 35 degree day, and that was warm for that week! I took the egg home and put it in a bowl with a damp towel under a heat lamp. After about four days, we candled the egg and saw blood vessels! Since then we've seen more and more development, and now there's a dark little bean growing inside the egg. We're being smart about this. We built a homemade incubator from a styrofoam box. We're turning the egg 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 kind of permit do I need to keep this duck in my home? I don't plan on getting any other ducks. I don't know what breed this duckling is. I know to keep Muscovy ducks in PA, you need a permit. However, I've never seen Muscovy ducks in 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 a place in which I need to register all non-caged pets, so I want to have all the proper permits so I don't get in trouble for having this little guy. Can anyone help me out? Thanks a lot! LP
No help with the keeping, but a note and a wish of good luck. We always turn eggs an uneven number of times each day (3 or 5) so that they don't have the same side up each night. Good luck!
