Duck egg hatchlings

[Jenny B]

Would someone please be able to let me know the following. I have a male and now a female Muscovy duck. I have only had the female for less than a week. she is laying eggs. yippee!!. If my male and female mate how do I know if the eggs are fertilised with hatchlings or just ordinary eggs. Will the female sit on them and if so how long does it take for them to hatch. This is unknown territory I am heading into. Can anyone please advise. Thank you.

 

[The Duck Ladie]

One way to tell is to "check her eggs" for two weeks. Basically you check her daily egg every other day, or every day for a white bulls eyes in the yolk. Like this:

If you don't see it immediately flip the yolk over with a spoon and keep looking. If you get a good amount of fertile eggs for two weeks, then you can start collecting her eggs to hatch.