Proverbs are often inaccurate. There’s an old saying that idle hands are the devil’s tool. This story will prove to you the complete opposite. After being furloughed due to the pandemic, Charli Lello decided she’d do something with her spare time. She bought 6 free-ranging duck eggs from Waitrose and set up an incubator to try and hatch them.

Ms Lello, who normally works as an assistant manager, got inspired by a video of Youtuber who hatched a Quail egg. She wanted to try that as well. “We have chickens so it wouldn’t have been much of a stretch,” said the animal-loving 29-year-old to Bored Panda.

More info: Instagram

Beep was the first one to hatch

Image credits: beeppeepmeep

“While I was in Waitrose, I saw the duck eggs and thought maybe they would work as well. I was so excited for them to hatch but I still had in the back of my mind that these are supermarket eggs.” Now, what were the odds she was up against? It’s usually very rare that ducks hatch from market eggs.

Image credits: beeppeepmeep

Image credits: beeppeepmeep

“They have been collected, bashed around on a delivery truck, then rattled around on a trolley onto a shelf, picked up and put down by who knows how many people, so they still might not go all the way,” she told BBC. Yet there’s always a slim chance that male ducks can slip-by unnoticed while they all free-range. Waitrose spokesperson even commented after the story, that it’s extremely difficult to identify white male ducks. However, fertile eggs are indistinguishable from non-fertile, so it was all up to chance.

Image credits: beeppeepmeep

Then came Peep

Image credits: beeppeepmeep

Image credits: beeppeepmeep

Image credits: beeppeepmeep

Image credits: beeppeepmeep

But Charli bided her time and turned the eggs in the incubator 3 times a day. It’s a miracle that out of the 6 eggs, 50% of them hatched. Out of the Waitrose box first came Beep, then Peep, then Meep, who’s clearly the youngest of the three. Aren’t those names just lovely? These chicks are all less than a month old, so they’ll change quite dramatically soon enough.

Image credits: beeppeepmeep

Meep hatched just a little behind the first two

Image credits: beeppeepmeep

Beep and Peep hanging with Arfur, the free-ranging Netherland Dwarf bunny

Image credits: beeppeepmeep

Image credits: beeppeepmeep

In case you were wondering about the species of the ducks, they’re Braddock Whites—it says so on the box they came from. They haven’t fully matured from their chickdom yet, but the eldest, Beep, has already started developing white feathers. Charli said she’s going to wait for them to fully feather before she moves them out to live “a very happy life” outside with her chickens when they grow up. The story “just hatched,” as it were, and it goes on, so we suggest following Beep’s, Peep’s, and Meep’s further exciting developments on their Instagram!

Image credits: beeppeepmeep

Image credits: beeppeepmeep

Image credits: beeppeepmeep

Three little ducklings together

Image credits: beeppeepmeep

Image credits: beeppeepmeep

Image credits: beeppeepmeep

Image credits: beeppeepmeep

Image credits: beeppeepmeep

They’re growing up so fast

Image credits: beeppeepmeep

Image credits: beeppeepmeep

Image credits: beeppeepmeep

Image credits: beeppeepmeep

Image credits: beeppeepmeep

Image credits: beeppeepmeep

Image credits: beeppeepmeep

Beep is developing his white feathers

Image credits: beeppeepmeep

Image credits: beeppeepmeep

Image credits: beeppeepmeep

Image credits: beeppeepmeep

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