Our ducks hatched last night! We've been waiting patiently for 28 days (although they actually started hatching on the evening of the 27th day) for the latest additions to the farm. Eight out of twelve hatched, which is pretty good. We will leave the other four in the incubator for a couple more days to see if anything happens. I don't have a lot of good pictures yet, but stay tuned. The cuteness will flow freely very soon!
This is Yoda, who could hear the peeping from inside the incubator and was instantly intrigued. Our big dog won't let the cats mess with any of the babies who get raised in the house, but they don't get in trouble for window shopping.
One of the ducks got halfway pecked out of the shell and stayed there for several hours. I finally had to peel the shell off of it and let it hang out in the incubator until it dried out. We ended up having to soak the poor thing in warm water to get the shell off its fluff. It's doing fine now (we're calling it Shelley). Here's a picture of him/her:
I don't know if it's obvious, but Shelley is sitting on top of a puppy. The puppy didn't wake up during the photo shoot.
I will have more pictures soon. They are moving from their little tub to a stock tank tomorrow. It has more real estate for them to explore and should make for some good fun.
I want to give a shout of thanks to @viking-ventures for all her help and support via Discord during this whole process. She was watching our live feed and giving me advice all day. This is the first time we've used an incubator, and it's more complicated than I would have thought. She has years of experience and has been so willing to share her wisdom. Thank you!
If you want to check out our live stream farm feed, you can find it here: https://www.vimm.tv/@meanroosterfarm