28 (more) Duck Eggs to Incubate!

Now that our female call duck June has hatched out 8 adorable little ducklings,  we are left with numerous eggs scattered throughout the yard, the duck house, and in a few other random places.  Not sure which eggs are June's, which eggs are Maggie's, or even which are new or old, we just weren't sure what to do with all of them.  Eggs that are dropped are only so good for so long before they miss their window for incubation. Additionally, eggs that are dropped are only so good for consuming before they go bad too....for all we know, some of these could've been dropped months ago in the beginning of spring. (gagging thinking of the idea of eating rotten duck eggs-barf!)  It's difficult to know for certain because we were just letting Mother Nature hold her course of action with the ducks as we didn't want to do anything to disturb June from sitting by snatching up any remaining eggs out of her nest- ALTHOUGH, if it were up to Tim, we would've been collecting these suckers every day and eating like kings as duck eggs are delish!   Sorry, Timmy... baby duckies are way better then a good meal! haha

After some solid thought, and a brief family discussion (ok, more like me making the decision and everyone rolling with it) we came to the crazy decision that rather than tossing them all out in the garbage or feeding the coons with them, we'd round up all the eggs we could find, cleaned them up and got them ready for the incubator.  Anything we collected up until today we'd incubate. Anything after today- we eat! Fair deal, right?

Well, sort of.. we don't actually have an incubator just yet- but we decided to make this a fun science experiment and make our own out of a Styrofoam cooler. Another post to follow with photos and step-by-step instructions on how we made it. And of course, lots of updates and candling photos to come also as we go through this journey for the next 28 (give or take) days. 28 days is the average incubation period for a duck.

 For now, here's our gorgeous rainbow of blues and grays just waiting to get growing.  All 28 of the that is...   God help us if these all take, or should I say God help Tim as he'll be building another barn!