Duck egg question

[Blisschick]

This may sound dumb coming from someone who has hatched numerous chicken eggs ...

About what day can you tell for sure that a duck egg is fertile? I can tell that a chicken egg is fertile by about day 3 or 4 because it takes on a pinkish hue and the air cell stands out clearly. I did my first ducks eggs about two years ago (Pekins), so I don't remember much about them other than it took 28 days for them to incubate. The ones I have now are not as big as Pekin eggs, but I can't tell for certain whether or not they're fertile because they were shipped eggs, so the air cells aren't in the best condition and the shells are kind of thick. I know with a chicken egg, the yolk kind of settles toward the pointed end and you can see definite layers in the first week or so, along with blood vessels and sometimes the embryo. Common sense tells me I should be looking for the same thing with duck eggs, but I just wanted to be sure.

 

[BikerBabeRules]

I have the same question. I've got to females and a male in the barn. Each early a.m. i go and collect a piping hot egg from the nest I see her get off of. I have been dating them and incubating them. I don't see anything either, other than the yolk. It's been over a week, is this normal?

 

[jkcove08]

If you have white duck eggs you should see veining by day 5. That is when I usually do my first candling. I just look for the veins and they are very easy to see. The darker eggs may be closer to day 6 or 7. I have noticed that with my large duck her first 10 eggs were duds but every one after that has been going like mad. Good luck. Jenn

 

[Blisschick]

I just candled mine again, and I'm seeing a couple that are definitely fertile, but a couple that I'm in doubt about since I'm seeing some kind of life signs, but not enough to convince me it wasn't an egg that was fertile and didn't quite make it. Today makes a week they've been in, so I'm kind of baffled.

 

[Crazy4Chicks]

I am no expert at all - but the eggs I had in the bator were green cayaga (sp) eggs and I saw veins on day 10, I did not try to candle them before than. I lost them on day 16 to a temp spike - but I have set 7 more that are on day 2.

good luck with your hatch

Julie

 

[Dodgegal79]

I have mucovys in the bator right now and candled them at 7 days. You can easily see the viens in them on that day and can easily see the ones that are clear. I have yet to candle coloured eggs, so I'm not sure how hard it is to see them on those. My ducks started to lay a month and a half ago and the for the first while they were mostly non fertile. The drakes didn't seem to be doing the job, but I had an older one given to me and he is doing the job, most of my eggs are fertile now.