Pippin and Tapper.

Towards the end of May, I had put three duck eggs in our incubator from our newest ducks. I lost one early on due to another egg that exploded (that has got to be the worst smell on this earth). So, I was left with only two little eggs that had become very special to me (especially since they survived the exploding egg).

This past Sunday, I had opened the incubator to turn the eggs inside & for some reason I decided to candle them just to check on their development. They were still almost a week away from hatching, yet, when I shined that light into them I could see movement in the air cell in one of them! So, just to double check, I held them both one at a time to my ear, and guess what. . . there was the tell-tale "tap, tap, tapping" sound of a duckling pecking away at the eggshell. Needless to say, they went on early lockdown.

By the next day, one had externally pipped, but it was on the wrong end. Less than an hour later, I noticed that that same duckling must have nicked a blood vessel because there was quite a bit of blood. Thankfully, though, after a rest the duckling made it to zip and then to hatch. A few hours after hatching, the other duckling joined it. Shortly after that, we named them Pippin and Tapper; Pippin being the first to hatch and Tapper the second.

It was then that we noticed how weak Pippin was and that she was unable to walk or sit up. So, as soon as they were dry, out of the incubator they came and into a warm brooder. After giving Pippin some electrolytes and a lot of TLC, she was much better and was acting like she had been walking all the time.


Pippin (front) & Tapper (back).
Pippin was not too thrilled about being in the basket to have her picture taken.



Our dogs love watching "incubator TV".