Duckling Update #1

Today I placed my long overdue duck eggs into the incubator to begin their development. I had purchased 9 eggs with my incubator and auto turner. They kept not arriving... weeks went by. Finally, I emailed the website I got them from. On a Monday (a while ago) I got a phone call in the middle of my teaching day saying the eggs would be here in 3 or 4 days. Seven days later I called the number on the website. Message machine. I left a message. The next day I tried again... machine. This time I did not leave a message. I hung up. A few minutes later they called back and we chatted about my issue while my class sat quietly on the carpet awaiting news of their duck eggs. It turns out the guy had sold his website, and I was not his customer, but that of the new owner. We straightened things out and he gave me the new owner's number. I called. He said the eggs had been shipped 7 days ago and should be here... I said, Are the ducks going to hatch after being in the mail so long? He said they lasted 10 days. He encouraged me to call my local post office. I called my local post office. They were helpful but couldn't do much with out a tracking number. I called the egg guy for the tracking number. He needed to call the farmer and get back to me. He called me back and said that he would send me a new batch of eggs. The "old" eggs arrived on the 10th day. I did not incubate them. I waited for the new batch. They arrived on Friday. I put them in the incubator this morning... all except one which was cracked. So, 8 little duck embryos hopefully to turn into 8 little quacking ducks in 28 days...on May 12th. I am a wreck of nerves.