Betsy Ross, from Visalia, California, already has three children, but she found time and patience to raise one more.
One who hadn’t hatched yet.Not long ago, Betsy and her family went to the park to play and saw that someone had destroyed the duck’s nests there.
It was a terrible sight, but after looking closely, they found an egg still intact. Although it was broken, it wasn’t dripping, so Betsy tried to save it.
She took the egg home and started to incubate it. In her bra!
Betsy and her family went to a park in Visalia, California, to play, and they saw that someone had destroyed the duck’s nests
“My children were very upset… they found a cracked egg, which didn’t drip, and asked me to save it.”
“I didn’t think I could save it because I’d never hatched an egg.”
“I couldn’t afford an incubator, so I called the local wildlife center, but they said they wouldn’t accept eggs.”
Betsy then asked if they would accept the animal if it hatched, and they agreed.
“So I put the egg in my bra to keep it warm and started researching online how to hatch a duck egg.”
She discovered that the egg needs heat and moisture, so she decided to leave it where it was.
“I wore it for 35 days in my bra, I slept with it too. I’m a plus size, so it fit right between my breasts.”
“When I had to take a shower, my husband held it. I figured if Mommy Duck had to go out every once in a while to get food, it wouldn’t hurt to leave him while I was showering.”
Then she knew it needed a lot of moisture and to stop rotating it, so she looked for ways to create the right environment.
So she got a lamp, a plastic container, bags, a water bowl and lots of tape, and created an incubator box herself.
“At 35 days I started to hear it chirping faintly, and its beak was pushing the egg shell.”
Betsy put the egg in the box and waited a day, but something seemed wrong, so she called the vet. Turns out the duck was trapped in the egg membrane.
The vet explained to Betsy that she would have to carefully peel the shell, avoiding the veins, and make sure the duck’s nose was where it could breathe, and she did.
“Eventually it came out, but it was still connected to the yolk at the bottom of the egg. I was told it was because it was premature, but I saw on reddit that it was because it wasn’t H๏τ enough or the temperature wasn’t stable.”
“I put it on a washcloth and wrapped it with the yolk, putting antibiotics on it so it wouldn’t get infected. Maybe it wasn’t the best idea, but I was scared.”
When the duck absorbed the yolk, it was very weak and did not move or stand for a few days, but Betsy did not give up and helped it to drink water.
“He would nap with me and I made him a little carrier to take with me.”
“He would follow me and when he heard my voice, he would go crazy and scream.
He seemed to know when I was leaving without him, because my husband was complaining that he sat down to cry.”
“A contact helped me find a nearby farm with rescued animals. He’s doing very well and has a new human who loves him.”
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