I'd like to share the story of my little Qwackerjack. Please be kind, I'm sure many may not approve but I did what I thought was the right thing to do at the time
I visit a local park a few days a week to feed the ducks and geese and to de-stress. It's beautiful with big trees and nice creek full of fish, turtles, and waterfowl.
I'm there so often, I've gotten to know many of the ducks and they know me, several will eat from my hand and a few even seem to recognize my car, running up to me as I'm parking. LOL.
Anyway, back in June I was there as usual tossing feed to my feathered friends when a couple of my regulars, Curly & Freckles, waddle up for a snack. After a few minutes, Freckles moved back about 10 feet from me and dropped an egg.
I was shocked to say the least. She didn't even give it a second look as she rejoined the others gobbling up the feed. The egg just sat out in the grass,with no shade or cover or hide. After 45 minutes and Freckles still had not acknowledged her egg, I began to worry about what would become of it. She couldn't pick it up and carry back to a nest, it couldn't stay out in the open under the brutal Texas sun, not to mention vulnerable to predators, dogs, and bratty kids. As I was on my phone googling for some info on the situation, trucks pulled up on the other side of the park and were unloading their huge mowers, it was just a matter of time before they got to my area and scrambled the poor egg. I was heading for a full on anxiety attack when I decided I just couldn't walk away and not at least try to help.
I gently picked up Eggy and looked around for Freckles thinking maybe she'd be alerted to me messing with it but she'd already wandered off farther down the creek. I took Eggy home, found instructions for homemade incubator on youtube and educated myself on temp/humidity/turning. My friends kept telling me it was probably not fertilized and that's why she abandoned it, but I thought I'd give it a week then candle to see if it was developing. At eight days, we could see it was indeed fertilized.
I spent the next 20 days monitoring and turning and falling in love with my little Eggy. Candling every few days and watching him grow.
After 2 days of him struggling and no sleep for me, my sweet Qwackerjack kicked off the last of his shell July 29th. He was a healthy black duckling with cute yellow bib and white wing tips. He already had me firmly wrapped around his tiny wing. His first week he spent in a 20 gallon fish aquarium on my bedside table so he could always seem me and I could be at his beck and call. Now at almost 11 days old, he has outgrown the aquarium so I've set up a big cage in our living room for him during the day and he still sleeps in his glass tank at night to be near me.
Since his hatch, I've often thought, "I have a DUCK! What am I going to do with this DUCK!" LOL I guess it's like an unexpected pregnancy, you love them and find ways to make it work. I've contacted the city zoning department and we are allowed to have yard fowl in my neighborhood, I'll just have to set up a habitat for him when he gets a bit older and the temps get back down under 100F.
I've learned my Qwacker will need a friend to be a happy well adjusted duck but I don't know where to get another that's his age. And is it any more work/expense to have two vs just one? I love this little mega-pooper and want him to be happy, healthy and thrive in my care. I'll probably have lots of questions on this journey, and I'm so thankful I came across this amazing forum/website. So far I've been about to search the comments here to find answers to most of my queries but it will be great to interact with folks who are knowledgeable in ducks and share my affection for them.
If you've made it all the way to the end of this mini-novel, thanks for reading my story and I hope folks aren't too critical of my actions.
PS, I posted this on The Duck Thread a bit ago. I'm new to the forum and not sure which is best place to share my story so I'm putting it here too. Please excuse the double post.
I visit a local park a few days a week to feed the ducks and geese and to de-stress. It's beautiful with big trees and nice creek full of fish, turtles, and waterfowl.
I'm there so often, I've gotten to know many of the ducks and they know me, several will eat from my hand and a few even seem to recognize my car, running up to me as I'm parking. LOL.
Anyway, back in June I was there as usual tossing feed to my feathered friends when a couple of my regulars, Curly & Freckles, waddle up for a snack. After a few minutes, Freckles moved back about 10 feet from me and dropped an egg.
I gently picked up Eggy and looked around for Freckles thinking maybe she'd be alerted to me messing with it but she'd already wandered off farther down the creek. I took Eggy home, found instructions for homemade incubator on youtube and educated myself on temp/humidity/turning. My friends kept telling me it was probably not fertilized and that's why she abandoned it, but I thought I'd give it a week then candle to see if it was developing. At eight days, we could see it was indeed fertilized.
After 2 days of him struggling and no sleep for me, my sweet Qwackerjack kicked off the last of his shell July 29th. He was a healthy black duckling with cute yellow bib and white wing tips. He already had me firmly wrapped around his tiny wing. His first week he spent in a 20 gallon fish aquarium on my bedside table so he could always seem me and I could be at his beck and call. Now at almost 11 days old, he has outgrown the aquarium so I've set up a big cage in our living room for him during the day and he still sleeps in his glass tank at night to be near me.
Since his hatch, I've often thought, "I have a DUCK! What am I going to do with this DUCK!" LOL I guess it's like an unexpected pregnancy, you love them and find ways to make it work. I've contacted the city zoning department and we are allowed to have yard fowl in my neighborhood, I'll just have to set up a habitat for him when he gets a bit older and the temps get back down under 100F.
I've learned my Qwacker will need a friend to be a happy well adjusted duck but I don't know where to get another that's his age. And is it any more work/expense to have two vs just one? I love this little mega-pooper and want him to be happy, healthy and thrive in my care. I'll probably have lots of questions on this journey, and I'm so thankful I came across this amazing forum/website. So far I've been about to search the comments here to find answers to most of my queries but it will be great to interact with folks who are knowledgeable in ducks and share my affection for them.
If you've made it all the way to the end of this mini-novel, thanks for reading my story and I hope folks aren't too critical of my actions.
PS, I posted this on The Duck Thread a bit ago. I'm new to the forum and not sure which is best place to share my story so I'm putting it here too. Please excuse the double post.
We just got our first duckling named Quackers, s/he's about 3 weeks old. We're in Texas as well, & waiting for it to "cool" down enough to build him his own space outside. 
I've been getting plenty of ideas from this site for when it's time. Oh, how do you go about finding out if the city allows it?
