Dumb question but I need answers lol! Ducks started laying eggs!

[aduckstolemyheart]

Alright, this is my FIRST time with a hen, and my duckie girl started laying! I found a she had been laying (4 eggs in total) in a blue plastic box my daughter left outside. lol One is alot bigger and they are an off white, with light brown spots.

So my questions are such:
1. How do you know if they are fertilized? Would they be fertilized or not?
2. can you eat them either way?
3. how quickly do you have to catch them for them to be good to eat?

Any other tips and pointers, please let me know! I am a first time girl duck mom!
lol

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

if you have a drake then it is a good chance that they are fertile. You can eat them just like you do chicken eggs but they are excellent for baking

 

[aduckstolemyheart]

So hypothetically you could try to incubate and raise them too? Not saying I want to, just asking lol.

 

[aduckstolemyheart]

Also, we have NO idea how long they've been there, there were four in total. Would they be good still...or??

 

[katharinad]

I would not eat them. Duck eggs will have blood vessels inside from day 4 of incubation. Taking a flashlight into a dark room is a way of looking at what's going inside. They may not have been incubated at this point, because ducks tend to lay several eggs before they decide to incubate them. In this case the duck outsmarted you.

Try to lock her up at night, so she has to lay before you let her out. Leaves you in control and it protects the duck from predators. You should collect and refrigerate eggs each day when you want them for your own consumption, that way there are no surprises. Also I would not hatch the first set of eggs, because they usually have different sizes and they may not all be fertile. Best is to wait the first 2-3 weeks until the duck has it's rhythm. Also first egg laying ducks are so inexperienced and it could go wrong. Another thing to consider is that it may not be the best to hatch ducklings this late in the season. You have to think one month incubation, and 3 months of growing. That will be well into winter. It may be smarter to take the eggs away and don't let her sit until next year. This is of course my opinion and others may not agree with it. Congratulations on your first eggs.

 

[Wifezilla]

Do the float test. Put the egg in a bowl of water deep enough to cover the egg by a few inches. If it floats, it's bad. If it sinks and lays flat on the bottom, it is fresh. If it is on the bottom but part of the egg is tilted towards the surface, it is still good, but should be used fairly quickly.

 

[aduckstolemyheart]

We do lock them up at night. The blue box is in their house.

I did not even notice though, because the box is sideways and facing the opposite direction of the house door. My daughter thought they'd enjoy a little bed/lean-to. lol

Thanks for all the advice! I am certainly new to the eggs part of ducks. Until this year we had a lone rescue male. Then we bought ducklings this season for company.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Duck eggs are deeeeeeeelicious! Go ahead & try the float test, or crack them in a separate dish before using and check how they look & smell. They are probably all right, and too precious to waste! Now that you know your duck is laying you should check that blue box each morning for a new egg. My ducks all lay their eggs early in the morning before I go out to release them from their duck houses. I tell my kids to follow their example, get your work done promptly and early then you have the rest of the day to play.

What kind of ducks do you have, are they all Pekins like the one in your avatar? Your hen may lay a lot of eggs before she decides to go broody, if ever. They are perfectly fine to eat whether they're fertile or sterile.

 

[aduckstolemyheart]

Candled them all, no blood vessels yet, so I think we're good. Also did the float test, they sank like rocks.

The big one broke

But we got to see the inside, and it was a double yolk. We cooked it up and fed it back to the ducks.

We have two Pekins (our hen and one drake) and one crested black Swedish drake.
Here's pics!

Big one once it broke:

One of the little ones (we figured out the spots are dirt lol)

 

[desertdarlene]

Wow, a double yolk! I wonder what would have happened if that would have been fertile and hatched.