Today we saw the first signs of the hatching process!
The first part isn’t visible – it’s called internal pipping and what it means is the duckling pushes its beak through the membrane into the air sac at one end of the egg. You can actually hear the little ducklings inside cheeping.
The next sign is the external pip, when there is a visible crack in the egg. Only one so far has an external pip, but there’s a lot of cheeping going on and it’s so exciting! When you hear them you realize that there really are baby ducklings in there.
Tomorrow we’ll head to the feed store to pick up food and whatever other supplies we’ll need for them. It’s going to be a busy weekend. 🙂
Avivah
This is the classic definition of nolad, right? So I guess they are mutzah on Shabbos/Yom Tov.
Yael, you’re losing me. 🙂 They’re supposed to stay in the incubator for 12 – 24 hours after hatching, and you’re not supposed to handle them too much in the first three days so they don’t over-imprint on you, so we won’t be holding them much at first.
B’sha’a tova!
I was wondering what would be the appropriate thing to say since it seemed too early for “mazel tov”.
I’ll second what she said.
Hey, don’t you practice attachment parenting?? If so, don’t you want the little guys to imprint on you?? 🙂
I’m telling you, this hatching process reminds me of being three weeks overdue just a year ago! Only one egg is showing signs of hatching (though we know a lot more have fully developed thanks to candling) and it’s taking forever!
It’s a good reminder that nature’s process takes time, I guess. I hope I haven’t done something wrong, since 28 days is the average hatching time.
And Yael, I don’t want to raise birds who are dysfunctional from the get-go! 😆 There’s something about too much imprinting too soon being bad for them. Or something like that. I’m not a bird expert, though!