Y’all know about me and Ralph and our connection over small creepy crawly things, right? So I shouldn’t have been surprised when he came knocking on my office door. I expected a lizard or a snake or something. He’s the one I brought my surprise mockingbird guest on Monday, so that we could both be soundly cussed out before the bird squirmed free and zipped back out the door.

But no, Ralph had a story about sampling a well down by the canal, and spotting a crazy looking woman with frizzy black sticky-out hair stomping around down in there. He’s a nosy sort, so he went to see. She had a nest full of duck eggs in a bag, and was collecting some other junk to go with them (who knows why?) She said the momma duck was dead over there in the reeds, that some dogs had killed her.

Ralph offered to put the eggs in his truck while she went and got something to put them in. He waited around for over half an hour, but really had to go. He stopped by our local analytical lab, thinking they’d have an incubator at least. They said if he can’t find someone else, they’d take them.

Of course, you know where he went with them, your friendly neighborhood pseudo-biologist. And it turns out that I have done eggs before. We did that a lot as a kid; one duck, lots of chickens, and assorted small wild birds. But I don’t have an incubator handy. We always used my mom’s yogurt maker–that thing saw more use with baby animals than it did for making gross, sour yogurt.

I figured it’s about chick season (it is) so I went on down to the feed store, and sure enough, found a small incubator. I didn’t buy the auto-turner; how hard can ten eggs be to manage? In ideal conditions, I’d have had the incubator warmed up already, but we don’t know how long the eggs sat without the momma, so I put them right in there. If they’d started and then she was gone overnight, they might all be dead already, but I figure I’ll think positively for a couple of days and then candle them. I’m going to have to make a major guess when to stop turning them for the last few days if they are viable too. And then raise the darn things! Don’t know if I’ll be able to re-release them, but there are some people with duck ponds in the area if I have to. First, we see if I can hatch them.

I hope they’re viable; this will be a fun project.

The cat is intrigued, and the house smells like canal.