At 8 o'clock on the 30th April Shelley emerged. Partly. She struggled and struggled to free herself from her egg.



By the time we went to bed, poor old Shelley still had not managed to free herself and was beginning to look quite weak. We really didn't hold out too much hope for her.
The next morning we approached the incubator with trepidation. My hopes rose on seeing a nearly dried out duckling looking full of life, only to realise that a 6th egg had hatched. Shelley was still as we had left her the previous night, alive but still stuck in her egg.
After some consideration, we managed to bathe her out of her shell in a sink of warm water. She was utterly exhausted and had to be separated from the other ducks who only seemed to want to walk all over her. Shelley's left leg didn't look good, and stuck out behind her; in consequence she was unable to get herself up onto her feet.