It’s a dark and stormy day. Outside, there’s a thunderstorm going on with lightning and driving rain. Inside, in their incubator, the Muscovy eggs are hatching.
Four of the eggs have obvious external pips, and we can hear the ducklings peeping inside the shells. Duck eggs are hard and the membranes are tough, so these little guys have their work cut out for them.
Surprisingly, one of the pipped eggs is one of Piper’s that was added a couple of days after we set the initial group. It’s hatching earlier than expected, but still within the “normal” hatching window.
The last time we tried incubating Muscovy eggs, they seemed to develop but none pipped externally, so it’s a relief to see little bills working to break out of those shells. It may take a couple more days for all of the eggs to hatch, but it looks like we should see some long-awaited ducklings shortly!