Riverside duck sanctuary tries to save hundreds of balut hatchlings outside Orange County Walmart

Volunteers at a Riverside County duck sanctuary are fighting to save as many hatchlings as they can after a “horrible situation” in which hundreds of fertilized eggs were abandoned in Orange County due to a shipping delay.

The eggs were picked up by about 20 volunteers at a Walmart parking lot in Brea on Saturday, after The Duck Sanctuary in Winchester was contacted by a woman in possession of about 300 so-called “balut eggs.” Considered a delicacy in some cultures, balut eggs are duck eggs that are incubated almost to the point of hatching and then boiled and eaten.

“The story turned out that is was a company that sells balut eggs to clients and that the shipment to them was late and in turn her clients bought them from a different supplier,” sanctuary founder Howard Berkowitz wrote in a social media post. “They were left with several hundred fertilized duck eggs, and they were starting to hatch.”

The odds were against the animals, since they were not provided with the proper humidity for hatching.

“When you properly hatch eggs you are always controlling the humidity for them to be ready for life,” he said, adding that “they were not given any food or water after they hatched. … We lost quite a few after picking them up, and we continued to lose them as the day went on.”

Some of the eggs started hatching in the Walmart parking lot, prompting volunteers to run into the store to buy water and dishes in a frantic effort to get the newborns hydrated.

“We started giving them water and food, and quickly most of them started perking up. Unfortunately at the same time we lost over 30 that just couldn’t make it,” Berkowitz said.

Berkowitz told City News Service on Tuesday that 120 babies were still alive, with 85 at the sanctuary and another 35 in the care of fosters.

The survivors were doing a lot better Tuesday, he said.

“They are doing really, really well. They’re all up and running around and cleaning themselves, which is not what they were doing on day one and day two,” he told CNS.

“They look really good today. Getting them the electrolytes really helped.”

The sanctuary is seeking donations to help fund the continuing effort to care for the hatchlings and find them homes.

Donations can be made at theducksanctuary.com.

Those interested in fostering a baby duck are advised to contact the rescue. Berkowitz said he provides the food, and the animals require minimal care. They need to be outdoors during the day and indoors at night, and of course they need access to water, which can be provided with a chicken waterer of the kind sold at farm supply stores.

Berkowitz, a biochemist, founded the sanctuary 10 years ago. He’s had to move locations a few times due to complaints from neighbors. The Winchester location also is temporary; Berkowitz told CNS he’s trying to raise the funds to buy a 20-acre property in Aguanga, where he wouldn’t have restrictions on the number of animals he could keep.

The sanctuary, which rescues abandoned ducks and geese, has six regular volunteers and another three staff members.

The effort to save so many hatchlings is taking its toll on Berkowitz and the volunteers, who’ve had to watch so many of the young ducks perish.

“Tonight I laid all of those beautiful little souls to rest,” Berkowitz wrote Monday in a post accompanied by video of a burial in his yard. “… It took everything I had to say goodbye to these sweet innocents, they shall be free from all the evil that this world offered them. Some only lived 1 day, some 2, and some 3 … no food, no water, no love … only to wind up in the hands of the sanctuary and then food, water and most of all … love was given … if only for a brief time.”