HELP runaway duck with new eggs

[sarahkoko]

my female muscovy Pallas, has just laid an egg this morning. i only have one duck and shes my first. Pallas sometimes flys away from home to a creek not far from my house an comes back home before dark. however she flew away last friday and didnt come back till sunday. and she happened to lay an egg monday morning. i have tried to determine if the egg is fertilised and it seems to be, she hasnt sat on it tho. but im thinking she had a affair with another duck? (there are no other muscovy ducks in the area i think) please help what should i do with the egg? how do i know its fertilised?

 

[Emmaxx]

Hi

I'm not sure what you mean by it seems to be fertile?
There are two ways you can find out, one is to crack open the egg - there will be a white dot on the yolk and by examining it closely you may be able to tell if it is fertile or not.
The other way is to incubate it for a while, probably about a week, and then you will see if an embryo has started to develop if you candle the egg.

 

[sarahkoko]

on some websites it says if u put a light through it, it should be like see through and if its not fertile it should be like shadowy?

Hi

I'm not sure what you mean by it seems to be fertile?
There are two ways you can find out, one is to crack open the egg - there will be a white dot on the yolk and by examining it closely you may be able to tell if it is fertile or not.
The other way is to incubate it for a while, probably about a week, and then you will see if an embryo has started to develop if you candle the egg.

 

[Nyla]

Welcome To BYC!
You mentioned you only have one duck. Is there other ducks nearby? If so what type of ducks are they? It is possible she could have bred with a wild duck. If being a mallard, her ducklings would be mules. Meaning she can have ducklings, but her ducklings will lay in-fertile eggs no matter if bred.
As for checking fertility, I always crack them open and check the yolks.

 

[Emmaxx]

on some websites it says if u put a light through it, it should be like see through and if its not fertile it should be like shadowy?

Does it say that's with an unincubated fresh egg? I know if you incubated and then candle and the whole egg lights up then it's infertile (or never started developing for some other reason), we call them clears. I said if you incubated for a week as I am unfamiliar with incubating muscovy eggs but I do they take longer to hatch, and a week would give you plenty of time to see development, which can be hard to recognise if you look too early and are unexperienced, some people are able to know what they are looking for after about three days when it is little more than shadowing on the yolk, especially to an untrained eye.

 

[sarahkoko]

Does it say that's with an unincubated fresh egg? I know if you incubated and then candle and the whole egg lights up then it's infertile (or never started developing for some other reason), we call them clears. I said if you incubated for a week as I am unfamiliar with incubating muscovy eggs but I do they take longer to hatch, and a week would give you plenty of time to see development, which can be hard to recognise if you look too early and are unexperienced, some people are able to know what they are looking for after about three days when it is little more than shadowing on the yolk, especially to an untrained eye.

oh ok im not incubating them? do i have to inorder for them to hatch? if it is fertilised. ty for your reply

 

[sarahkoko]

Welcome To BYC!
You mentioned you only have one duck. Is there other ducks nearby? If so what type of ducks are they? It is possible she could have bred with a wild duck. If being a mallard, her ducklings would be mules. Meaning she can have ducklings, but her ducklings will lay in-fertile eggs no matter if bred.
As for checking fertility, I always crack them open and check the yolks.

yes i believe they are mallards (hard to go close enough since they fly away). oh okay thankyou. do i have to crack the egg open to see? is there any other way i can tell?

 

[chickens really]

First your Hen will need to be Broody in order to hatch eggs. They will lay a clutch of eggs and once she is satisfied with the amount of eggs she has laid, she will begin to set them..She will need to be bred in order to have fertile eggs.

 

[Emmaxx]

oh ok im not incubating them? do i have to inorder for them to hatch? if it is fertilised. ty for your reply

As far as I understand it muscovy ducks are very good and keen to go broody, so no, just leave the eggs in the nest and see if she starts sitting on them (although it will take her a while to build her clutch up) you could always candle them after a week then to see if they are indeed fertile.

 

[Nyla]

With Muscovy egg shell being so hard and thick, it's difficult to use the flashlight method of checking fertility. I would crack it open to check fertility.