Drake shooting blanks?

[Lrosell31]

How do I know if my drake is not fertilizing my eggs. This is my first year having backyard birds and I decided to see if my duck would hatch eggs. She had 7 eggs she became broody so I thought everything was good. After time her eggs kept disappearing and some exploded. So my son and I were disappointed. My son wants to try again but I’m wondering if my drake just isn’t fertilizing. I see that he mounts her. And candling is still a bit confusing for me. If he’s not doing his job then I don’t want to keep wasting my duck eggs.

 

[Jurassic Wolf]

https://www.amazon.com/Magicfly-Bri...=UTF8&qid=1530295595&sr=8-3&keywords=ovascope If you want to know whether or not the eggs are fertilized you can just buy this (it works really well and is cheap). Or you can use a flashlight (does not work very well). With the linked one you will see veins and red lines and stuff inside the egg. With a flashlight you might see an air bubble. You just use either this thing or a flash light every few nights and then you can see if your rooster is fertilizing the eggs.

 

[Lrosell31]

https://www.amazon.com/Magicfly-Bri...=UTF8&qid=1530295595&sr=8-3&keywords=ovascope If you want to know whether or not the eggs are fertilized you can just buy this (it works really well and is cheap). Or you can use a flashlight (does not work very well). With the linked one you will see veins and red lines and stuff inside the egg. With a flashlight you might see an air bubble. You just use either this thing or a flash light every few nights and then you can see if your rooster is fertilizing the eggs.

Thank you. I was thinking of trying

https://www.amazon.com/Magicfly-Bri...=UTF8&qid=1530295595&sr=8-3&keywords=ovascope If you want to know whether or not the eggs are fertilized you can just buy this (it works really well and is cheap). Or you can use a flashlight (does not work very well). With the linked one you will see veins and red lines and stuff inside the egg. With a flashlight you might see an air bubble. You just use either this thing or a flash light every few nights and then you can see if your rooster is fertilizing the eggs.

I was using my flashlight on my phone but it was so hard to tell.

 

[Jurassic Wolf]

yeah flashlights don't always work very well unless you have a really thin shelled egg.

 

[Susan12]

I was ok using flash light on white eggs.colored are harder too see through.

 

[Lrosell31]

yeah flashlights don't always work very well unless you have a really thin shelled egg.

And the duck egg shells are thicker than my chicken eggs. So it was really hard to tell.

 

[Miss Lydia]

When you crack an egg open do you see the bullseye?

 

[cheezenkwackers]

I tried to hatch some eggs when my ducks were young only to find them not fertilized. I looked it up and found out that drakes have to be several months old before they stop shooting blanks. I don’t recall how many though. I have hatched their offspring since then.