A mom from California, Betsy Ross, amazingly hatched a premature duck egg after incubating it in her bra for 35 consecutive days, and raised it, as a mother duck would do to a duckling.
According to her interview with ABC Localish, she and her family went out to play pickleball in a nearby park when they chanced upon a fractured fence smashed into a duck nest.
They found an unhatched egg with a slightly cracked shell lying on the ground. The children felt so bad for the lone duck egg that they decided to bring it home to save it.
As Betsy was clueless on the process of hatching an egg, she phoned the local wildlife center and asked them to incubate it, but sadly they declined her request for help as they don’t take duck eggs in the center.
Though quite saddened by the lack of support, she decided to take matters into her own hands.
Initially, she felt dispirited as she did not have the budget to buy an incubator to properly gestate the egg, but then, a witty idea came to mind.
She decided to incubate the egg in her bra and used her breast sweat and the warmth of her body to keep the duck egg alive inside the shell.
She also had to distribute equally the right amount of heat and moisture around the egg, hence, consistently rotating it four to five times a day was paramount.
“My boobs sweat in heat (gross I know), I carried it in my bra for 35 days and slept with it there as well. I’m a plus size girl so it just kinda fit right between my breasts.” Ross said in an interview with Bored Panda.
She patiently kept the egg in her bra for 35 days but had to hand it over to her husband whenever she had to take a shower.
Later on, she realized the egg required more moisture, so she also assembled a DIY nesting box where she placed all the incubating materials needed to allow for a successful hatch.
Thirty-five days after
“At 35 days, I started hearing faint peeps which the internet said was called piping and its beak was pushing out of the lining,” said Betsy.
She expected the duckling to inch its way out of the shell quite easily, but that did not happen. It struggled to come out, and Ross waited the whole day before she realized something was amiss, so she hastily called the vet for advice.
It so happened that exposure to fluctuating temperatures induced premature hatching.
The egg cracked ahead of time, which resulted in the duckling being “shrink-wrapped in the membrane,” making it hard for it to push its way out of the shell.
So the vet advised her to cautiously peel away the shell and avoid poking through the vein as the premature duckling was still very much attached to the membrane.
“I got a wet paper towel and wrapped it around the shell with the yolk and put Neosporin on it so it wouldn’t get infected. Maybe not the best idea but I was scared,” Betsy said.
The duckling finally came out of the egg alive and kicking.
Betsy was elated when she woke up one morning to see the duck walking. She doted on the duckling as she would to her kids. She would have him swim in the tub and mud puddles, and brought him everywhere she went. The duck was so emotionally attached to her that he would get so agitated when Betsy wasn’t around.
When the duck was old enough, Betsy reached out to one of her connections in the rescue center to find a suitable rescue farm for him to roam around freely. To be restricted to a house is not a viable option for him as it is not a natural habitat for a duck.
Thankfully, they found the duck a home on a nearby farm. They placed him under the care of a young girl who was more than delighted to meet him.
People can’t help but be in awe of Ross’ patience and compassion. But there is one question that most people can’t help scratching their head over, how was she able to avoid smashing and cracking the duck egg open while carrying it in her bra day and night for 35 days?
That is something that even I can’t wrap my head around.