![\"\"](\"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/DSCN2533-e1282768636984.jpg\" "\\"egg\\"")
<\/a>We only brought an unhatched egg into the house, put it on a towel, in a pot, under a heat lamp because an adult duck is worth $40 at market price.\u00a0 It was not because we could hear the desperate pipping of the duckling inside the abandoned egg.\u00a0 And, for the record, we did not run into the house with the egg cuddled in the warmth of Pretty’s T-shirt because of concern for the egg’s well-being.\u00a0 We were simply done with the morning chores (most of them) and Little had to pee (after a while).\u00a0 Besides, it was actually only a quick jog.\u00a0 Professionals don’t run for the sake of an unhatched egg.<\/p>\nWe did not mist the eggshell with lukewarm water or gradually chip away at the external pip for the next 8 hours because we wanted to save the exhausted duckling inside the egg.\u00a0 No, we just figured we had already spent $2.00 running the 250 watt heat lamp, we might as well try to get a return on our investment.\u00a0 It was purely a professional, financial decision.<\/p>\n
Besides, these sorts of things don’t happen that often around here.<\/p>\n We aren’t constantly rescuing unhatched eggs.<\/p>\n Just every once in a while.<\/p>\n We’re not always playing with, I mean, caring for, ducklings in the house.<\/p>\n It just happens.\u00a0 Sometimes.<\/p>\n It’s a tough job.<\/p>\n But we’re just the professionals to do it.<\/p>\n<\/a>We did not spend the rest of the day crouched by the pot, peeping at the egg, to encourage the duckling to hatch because we were too soft-hearted to let it die.\u00a0 It was simply a cheaper way to entertain the kids than taking them to the movies like we had planned.\u00a0 It might even count for a Girl Scout badge.\u00a0 That’s the kind of cost-saving, forward-thinking farm we run around here.\u00a0 We’re professionals.<\/p>\n<\/a>We didn’t dry the duckling off after it hatched and take turns holding it cuddled on our laps because we were controlled by some misguided anthropomorphism that told us “babies” needed to be warmed and cuddled.\u00a0 We were just trying to raise it’s core temperature and stimulate it’s drinking reflexes so it could drink on it’s own.\u00a0 This is a working farm and we know that an animal that eats early, recovers from the birthing\/hatching process faster than those that don’t.\u00a0 We’re professionals.<\/p>\n<\/a>We didn’t let the duckling sit on the couch with us because we are amateurs who cannot separate the distinct realities of raising animals to be butchered and raising pets.\u00a0 We simply recognized that ducks are prone to an injury called spraddle leg which comes from being raised on a surface that is too slippery for them to have decent traction.\u00a0 So, couch it is.\u00a0 That’s the kind of educated professionals we are.<\/p>\n<\/a>We didn’t name the duckling Meghan and attach a tiny adjustable band around her leg before returning her to the mother duck because we got too attached to consider butchering her.\u00a0 We just checked our farm journal and realized we needed to mark some more young ducks to be saved as breeding stock.\u00a0 Being a professional farmer requires that kind of organization and preparation for the future of the flock.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n