Can you identify duck breed by the egg?

[Daisyfern]

Hello and good morning,
I think I've made a newbie mistake. We recently bought a Brinsea 20 incubator and over the weekend I ordered duck eggs from ebay.
The ad was for pekin and muscovy eggs. After reading through backyard chickens and my books, I see that the incubating time for the muscovy is about a week longer than other ducks so will be a problem with a mixed batch of eggs.

My question is: Will I be able to tell which eggs are for the muscovy and which are for the pekin? Will they look just alike? I have no idea if the seller has labeled them some way. I hope so!

If not, is this batch of eggs a lost cause or should I try anyway?

Thanks for your feedback! I'm learning something new everyday!

 

[Kleonaptra]

Theres a good chance you will be able to tell. I only have one scovy, Im not very experienced with their eggs, but to me they have a slight green hint. I know all my girls welll enough that I can usually tell which egg is from which girl.

Its not ideal, obviously, to have eggs in the bator that are due at different times, but, if the pekins hatch they can stsay in the bator for a day or two while the rest of them get out, and then you can sneaky quick get them out to a brooder and leave the muscovy eggs to do their thing a bit longer. This is usually what happens anyway despite our best intentions! And a million people can tell you dont open that bator, but still, you do, because you want to move a gunky eggshell, or check some ones umbilical stump or something!

You can also store the eggs. People recommend a cellar or basement, I stored the ones in my bator right now for about 3 weeks because I wanted to get up a nice clutch. I stored them for about 3 weeks? So long as its not cold enough to kill them, or hot enough to activate them, they store fine, but the longer they are stored the more their viability drops.

 

[Daisyfern]

Thanks so much! I'll cross my fingers for a good hatch!

 

[cracking up]

Every time I've bought different eggs from the same seller they mark them with a pencil. Make sure you read up on hatching shipped eggs, it can be a real challenge.

 

[Daisyfern]

Thanks for the advice! I have read that shipped eggs (especially ducks) can be difficult to hatch. This will be our first attempt at incubation. Our chickens are just starting to lay so hopefully in the spring we'll have our own eggs to work with.

 

[learycow]

Muscovy eggs are generally more waxy-like and off colored. Not quite as white. But its definitely easier if they have them labeled for you!

And muscovy eggs can be a challenge to hatch no matter what. So if you don't have good luck don't get discouraged!

 

[Daisyfern]

Thank you!

I'm curious to see if they will be marked or not when they get here.
I think we have a challenge for sure. Shipped eggs, different incubation lengths, etc. but we will try!!!
This is our first time so even if it doesn't work out we'll have some experience under our belt. I am sure I'll have more questions as we go through the incubation process.