UK teen does something unique; hatches an duck’s egg bought from supermarket

London, Feb 20: The eggs we buy from the local market for consumption are not meant for hatching but a teenager in the UK did something unique.

William Atkins from Sutton Coldfield in West Midlands, England, decided to hatch some eggs he bought from Waitrose that were supposed to be unfertilised, according to a story in LadBible.com. The 14-year-old decided to do it after learning about people doing the same.

Atkins then bought an incubator worth £40 (Rs 3,724) on e-Bay and also half-a-dozen free-range Gladys-May's Braddock Whites eggs.

After putting the eggs in the incubator for some days, he discovered a little heartbeat inside one of the eggs when focusing the light of a torch on it and by the end of the fourth week, the egg had hatched and a cute duckling was born.

"The duckling is absolutely adorable and already making little quacking noises. I am amazed a supermarket egg has actually hatched. But also really excited," Atkins was quoted as saying by LadBible.

When asked why he attempted, the youngster said I got the idea from a family discussion about whether it would be possible to hatch a supermarket egg since they are not fertilised.

He said he read somewhere about somebody hatching a quail's eggs but since he could not do the same with quail's eggs, he thought of trying the same with hens and ducks.

The boy has plans to name the duck Jemima or Jeremy, depending on its sex but he also has decided not to get too attached with it for it will be giving it away to a local farm where rescued ducks are kept.