Sunday, July 29, 2007

Duckling hatched from a box of eggs bought from a supermarket


UK - A SCHOOLBOY has defied the odds and hatched a duckling from a box of eggs he bought from a supermarket.
Will Parris paid £1.50 (€2.25) for the box of free range duck eggs which he took under his wing.
The eggs, otherwise destined to be scrambled, poached or fried, were bought from Waitrose in Surrey, in the UK, at the end of June with a best before date of July 2. With his dad Andrew's help he borrowed an incubator, put the eggs inside and waited to see what would happen.
In the early hours of July 8 with friend Josh Collier staying over, the boys were woken up to see a duckling start to break free from one of the shells. "We saw the crack in the egg and the duckling trying to peck its way out," he said. "It was amazing. I thought nothing would hatch. I have never had a pet like this before. This beats the rest," said Will (12).
A Waitrose spokesman said: "Our flocks are all female so this is an extremely rare occurrence, but a drake must have come into contact with the flock." The next task for the family is to provide some playmates for their new charge. MagazineLane.com