Nature Can Be So Cruel

We posted about Speckles last Friday and little did we know what we would discover a couple of hours later.  A predator got into the swan cottage and did the most horrible crimes to our sweet Speckles.  Mom had to help her cross. It was one of the hardest things that she's ever had to do in her life but it was the only thing that she could do. The damage was too great.   This happened only a couple of hours before mom picked our dad up at the hospital to bring him home to us. 
The predator did not touch Speckles' eggs.  They were all in the nest exactly as she left them.

The incubator was set up and all of the eggs were grouped inside.  The ones with "F" on them, meant that dad had candled them before he left for the transplant games.  The ones with "J" on them are the ones that mom collected on this horrible day.  They hadn't been candled yet so we didn't know if they were fertile are not.

As mom was loading the eggs into the incubator, she heard peeps coming from inside a couple of the eggs.  She called dad, who was still in the hospital to tell him. Mom also told him that the eggs were rocking and rolling all by themselves.  Dad asked if there were any "cracks" in the eggs.  YES!

How horrible that Speckles babies were going to be hatched less than 24 hours after she died.  She was such a good mom.

 I"m going to be an uncle again!

I'm keeping watch~~

 There are 12 ducklings - an even dozen. 

 One more egg is in the incubator and we think that it's fertile. It rocks but not a whole lot.

 We hope that Speckles knows that we saved her babies and we're taking good care of them.  She was the bestest mom and we feel so badly that she will never meet these adorable ducklings. 

RIP, Speckles.  We miss you and we wish your ducklings could have known you.  Life stinks sometimes. 

Love ya lots♥
Mitch and Molly