This is an unbelievable story that I have to share. I set 3 of my silver Appleyard duck eggs in the incubator with 9 jumbo coturnix, 4 bobwhite quail, and 6 chickens. Everything else hatched and the ducks were last. One egg wasn't fertile but 2 were developing nicely. Friday I noticed a pip on one egg. By Sunday it had made a decent sized hole but just wasn't hatching. By 4 or 5:00 I couldn't take it anymore so I hatched it out. It was perfect but the other egg wasn't doing anything at all so I assumed it had died in the shell and turned the incubator off. STUPID!!!
DBF stopped over Monday afternoon while I was at work to check on the duckling (in the brooder upstairs). What made him wander into the basement, we have no idea, but he did. He noticed the incubator was off and peered inside where he noticed the lone duck egg with a decent sized hole in it. He assumed it was dead which is why I turned the incubator off, so he decided to check it out. Holding the egg, he thought he saw it move. The beak was white from the cold and he thought it was his imagination. He watched it carefully and it moved again! He breathed some warm air on it and realized it was alive. He brought it upstairs and held it under the heatlamp. The color returned and the duckling was trying to hatch! He helped it out and today it is alive and well!! Needless to say, I feel absolutely stupid and will definitely give them more time on future hatches. I'm eternally grateful
and will publicly admit my mistake. Here's my little miracle ducky and its brother/sister:
