Fertilized eggs?

[Courtneydelphia]

Greetings

We got a pair of ducklings in April. Both were supposed to have been females, but we ended up with a male and female. Recently I saw them doing the mating dance in their pool. We haven’t had any eggs at all, but I noticed that they’ve made a little nest in their run. The female (Ping) has been all nesty and has been laying in there a lot. My question is how do I know if the eggs are fertilized? I have no interest in actually breeding them at this time, I legitimately just want duck eggs. If she lays and I pull them, can I eat them as normal? Do they have to be incubated for life to start in the egg? Or am I doomed with unusable eggs because there’s a drake?

 

[Isaac 0]

Grab an egg, crack it open into a bowl and examine the yolk, looking for a bullseye like appearance, if there isn't one the egg is infertile.

Fertile eggs are fine to eat.

 

[cheezenkwackers]

Eat away! The only difference between a fertilized egg and an unfertilized one is the amount of DNA in that little white dot you see on the yolk (which is the actual egg cell). You are correct that you will not get a baby unless you incubate the egg. That is what triggers the fertilized egg cell to go through cell division and turn that one cell into the many needed to be a baby duck.
You can tell if an egg is fertile when you crack it open. Look for the white dot on the egg yolk. If the dot is large or appears to have bullseye appearance, it is fertile. If the dot is very small, it is not fertile. In the picture below the bottom egg is fertile the top one is not.

Just because they are trying to mate does not mean your eggs are fertile. Drakes need to be a little older before they are fertile. One of my drakes fathered many ducklings and then became infertile. I do not know why. He was still mating with my girls but when I tried to hatch the eggs they were all infertile.

 

[Chicalina]

Eat away! The only difference between a fertilized egg and an unfertilized one is the amount of DNA in that little white dot you see on the yolk (which is the actual egg cell). You are correct that you will not get a baby unless you incubate the egg. That is what triggers the fertilized egg cell to go through cell division and turn that one cell into the many needed to be a baby duck.
You can tell if an egg is fertile when you crack it open. Look for the white dot on the egg yolk. If the dot is large or appears to have bullseye appearance, it is fertile. If the dot is very small, it is not fertile. In the picture below the bottom egg is fertile the top one is not.
View attachment 2302935
Just because they are trying to mate does not mean your eggs are fertile. Drakes need to be a little older before they are fertile. One of my drakes fathered many ducklings and then became infertile. I do not know why. He was still mating with my girls but when I tried to hatch the eggs they were all infertile.

I love that you took a comparison photo while also frying the eggs!

Drakes have an actual penis they use to penetrate the cloaca (like a little pigtail spiral) whereas roosters have such a tiny thing, it doesn't really penetrate the cloaca, they just squirt sperm into the opening. Maybe that means drakes have to have much better aim? I don't know which is better fertility wise, but thought I'd just share that random fact!

 

[cheezenkwackers]

I love that you took a comparison photo while also frying the eggs!

Drakes have an actual penis they use to penetrate the cloaca (like a little pigtail spiral) whereas roosters have such a tiny thing, it doesn't really penetrate the cloaca, they just squirt sperm into the opening. Maybe that means drakes have to have much better aim? I don't know which is better fertility wise, but thought I'd just share that random fact!

We don’t waste our precious eggs! You may be right about the aim. My drakes were/are typical bullies so the one who “miss-fired” went to a new home so I will never know. I only have one bully with my five girls now and he only gets supervised conjugal visits.

 

[Chicalina]

I loved my drakes but never had one who wasn't a bully with the girls. They kept mating my hens too so had to go for that reason.