Sweet, I candled the two light colored eggs- both were duds, and the yolks split when I cracked them to see if I could check fertility. I should have popped them in the fridge first, but I was tired and I was more concerned about cracking the polish eggs. As for the other six... well, I think I may need to get an actual candling light, because it is hard to see anything through their thick, tan shells. I could see a clear air cell and it LOOKED solid underneath (at least, it looked darker on top and lighter on bottom of the egg). In short, I have no idea but they still have a week and change. It didn't look like any were in danger of exploding, so I will let them all go to lockdown and see what comes out; my bator will be empty except for them so even if something goes boom I don't have to worry about other eggs.
As for the ducks, between my sick cat trying to puke on my bed every 15 minutes through the ENTIRE night and the duckling that started screaming inside its egg at 2:30 this morning, it was a long night. I finally got up at around 4:30 because I could NOT take ONE MORE SECOND of this duckling screaming inside its egg (two hours.... two straight hours of screaming!). I went over to the incubator, cracked the top of the egg open way quicker than I've ever 'helped' an egg ever before, and pulled its head out. It shut up instantly and looked at me like Hi Mom. I just wanted to say hi. *facepalm* I shoved it back into the incubator and tried to get a little sleep before work at 6:30. When I got up this morning, it was sitting in the incubator amongst the other 3 pipped eggs, just turning in circles, pecking at all of their beaks every time they moved *facepalm* So I set up the smaller brooder box in my room and slipped the under-box heater under and on.... put the top and heat lamp on.... and the heat lamp won't turn on. ARGH. So I just took my small heater fan, plugged the AC vent in my room, and left the heater running to keep the ENTIRE room warm while I'm at work. I grabbed the white egg to see if it had pipped (as long as I was in the bator anyway) and lo, it HAD pipped- on the side away from the air cell, and it had shoved its nose through a hole barely big enough for its beak, its nostrils didn't make it past the shell and the beak was unable to open... I scrambled to peel away shell to see if it was still alive and maybe had JUST done this, but it was very dead, and probably died in a matter of minutes after pulling this move.
With that taken care of for the moment, I go downstairs and the two ducklings from last week's hatch had again managed to drain their entire waterer into the brooder (thank god I had the foresight to securely duct tape the bottom of the box before use so there was no leakage or soakage). They were splashing around in the mess they'd made, happy as pigs in you know what. So today on top of getting a new bulb for my heat lamp, I will be picking up a rabbit run cage to put them in OUTSIDE where they can have a water bowl to go crazy in.
As adorable as they are, I can't wait to take them back to my friend to ditch them to their rightful home >.>
