Boy 'amazed' to hatch duckling from supermarket egg
A teenage boy was “amazed” to find a supermarket egg was not all it quacked up to be, when a duckling hatched in his bedroom.
Wildlife lover William Atkins, 14, wanted to test a theory that a duckling could be hatched from a supermarket egg under the right conditions.
He bought an incubator from eBay and placed a carton of supermarket eggs underneath, and just three days later the schoolboy discovered a beating heart coming from inside one of the shells.
Within 28 days, a little duckling hatched in his bedroom, in the UK town of Sutton Coldfield.
“I love anything to do with wildlife so no one took much notice when I started incubating the egg. They were stunned that I hatched one though – especially mum, who is not sure about me keeping a duckling in my bedroom,” he told MailOnline.
Supermarket eggs are not supposed to be fertilised as male and female ducks are kept separately on the farms.
However, a spokeswoman for egg company Clarence Court, from which the ducking was hatched, said a wild drake (male duck) had the potential to be attracted to a female in a free-range environment.
“Our ducks are kept in small flocks with access to the outdoors every day. In this open-air environment, while it is infrequent, our ducks may attract the attention of wild drakes.
“So, whilst it is very unusual for males and females to come into contact with one another, it is not impossible. Fertilised eggs are completely harmless to eat and without incubation, would be totally indistinguishable from unfertilised eggs,” the spokeswoman said.
“Ultimately, with an egg that has travelled from our farm to the home via our packing centre, the supermarket depot and store network, it is a feat of remarkably slim odds that a duckling has been hatched. But we acknowledge that it’s not impossible.”
