How exciting, and it must be a little nerve racking for you too.
This egg hatching is nerve-racking, but so fun and rewarding.
I enjoy reading about all the excitement everyone shares for each new pip or chick that hatches... As you can see from my info, I'm a newbie. I am constantly learning from all of you, and from mistakes!
My husband, his friend and I share the expense, duties and pleasures of our flock, but I'm the one interested most in ducks and hatching them this year. I began collecting eggs for hatching when frequent rains caused our pond to overflow in early March. One large nest was under water for over 8 hours! I read that the eggs chill very easily and die, but decided to try my luck (pond temps were mild and we had some warm days just before the rain.) About 22 eggs from the flooded nest went to a friend's incubator immediately, while 30 eggs I collected went into my new Farm Innovator incubator on March 16. They are now in lockdown!
Please note: the image of nest is of the second nest my mallards made on high ground. It contains duck and guinea eggs.
At the moment we have a mated pair of mallards, a black drake that could be a Cayuga, a crested fawn and white runner drake named Harpo, a large Indian runner drake and 4 very sweet runner hens. The eggs I collected were lovely - ivory and pale blue. I found them all over the yard. I felt certain they were all duck eggs until a chick hatched on April 7th.

I marked the eggs with date, and with condition they were found in, since some were in water and some were dry. It's my own little science project. I believe I've got the fever!!!
