slippednfell
Songster
Let me start off by giving a little bit of background. I am handicapped. My husband tends to the ducks, chickens and guineas. His memory is horribly shot. I bought six very brightly colored ceramic eggs and had him put three in the next box in the chicken coop. I still have three somewhere in the house. For some strange reason he thought that I had him put a bunch of ceramic eggs in the duck house. 
Anyway, I've been asking pretty frequently if there are any duck eggs or any chicken eggs. We went out of town for a week and when we got back and he checked the chicken house, there were 4 or 5 eggs and we have been getting an egg a day. (I didn't expect eggs until spring. The chickens are only about 6 or 7 months old.) He kept telling me there are no eggs in the duck house other than the ceramics. I thought geez... maybe I bought a couple of wood eggs, as I was looking at some on a trip to the feed store, and forgot about it. Of note: I noticed not seeing the ducks much since we have been home... they seem to be staying in the duck house more than on the pond. I chalked that up to the storms that came through on Friday night.
Tonight, he came in with a feed bucket half full of duck eggs.
Most are a tan and maybe 6 are light olive green, but I digress. So I gave them the float test and they all stayed at the bottom of the container. My question is... with out a candler, how do I know if they are developing or not. The lack of seeing the ducks much, might be explained by them sitting on eggs. I have no idea how old they are, due to DH's shoddy memory. I would think I should be safe and discard them but can they be cooked and fed back to the ducks or chickens? Also, considering how careful you have to be with washing your hands after handling poultry... is washing eggs with just water sanitary? Seems to me that you would also have to be careful handling eggs.
I appreciate any input, opinions and comments.
Anyway, I've been asking pretty frequently if there are any duck eggs or any chicken eggs. We went out of town for a week and when we got back and he checked the chicken house, there were 4 or 5 eggs and we have been getting an egg a day. (I didn't expect eggs until spring. The chickens are only about 6 or 7 months old.) He kept telling me there are no eggs in the duck house other than the ceramics. I thought geez... maybe I bought a couple of wood eggs, as I was looking at some on a trip to the feed store, and forgot about it. Of note: I noticed not seeing the ducks much since we have been home... they seem to be staying in the duck house more than on the pond. I chalked that up to the storms that came through on Friday night.
Tonight, he came in with a feed bucket half full of duck eggs.
Most are a tan and maybe 6 are light olive green, but I digress. So I gave them the float test and they all stayed at the bottom of the container. My question is... with out a candler, how do I know if they are developing or not. The lack of seeing the ducks much, might be explained by them sitting on eggs. I have no idea how old they are, due to DH's shoddy memory. I would think I should be safe and discard them but can they be cooked and fed back to the ducks or chickens? Also, considering how careful you have to be with washing your hands after handling poultry... is washing eggs with just water sanitary? Seems to me that you would also have to be careful handling eggs.I appreciate any input, opinions and comments.
