How do I know if my Muscovy Drake is fertile

[Paintingsummerpurple]

I have an 8 month old Muscovy drake and 2, 1 year old female Muscovy. I have not witnessed any mating behaviour but I am not out there all day either. I have one female who first started laying two weeks ago. She stopped laying for 4 days and has now begun laying again. How do I know if the drake is fertilizing the females eggs? If the eggs are not fertile I will bring them in the house to eat but if fertile my goal is to raise ducklings for meat.

 

[MagpieDucks]

Do they have access to swimming water?

 

[Paintingsummerpurple]

Do they have access to swimming water?

At present they have a large heated dog bowl which I have found them sitting in. Generally in warmer weather they have a kiddie pool or rubber maid container with water to use. I reside in Eastern Ontario Canada. The weather presently is warming up to around 10C during the day and dipping into the negatives overnight (really good for the maple sugar bushes) not so much for baby ducks I suppose. 35 days from now it will be much nicer.

 

[MagpieDucks]

At present they have a large heated dog bowl which I have found them sitting in. Generally in warmer weather they have a kiddie pool or rubber maid container with water to use. I reside in Eastern Ontario Canada. The weather presently is warming up to around 10C during the day and dipping into the negatives overnight (really good for the maple sugar bushes) not so much for baby ducks I suppose. 35 days from now it will be much nicer.

He might not breed until the weather warms up.

 

[Paintingsummerpurple]

He might not breed until the weather warms up.

How will I know for sure?

 

[sylviethecochin]

Check for fertile eggs. Right now, all of my ducks are breeding. I believe this has more to do with available daylight than temp; it's still freezing in the mornings sometimes.

 

[Paintingsummerpurple]

Thank you very much. This is very helpful. I checked three eggs and my boy is not active yet.

 

[Paintingsummerpurple]

my eggs have much less egg white. I that normal?

 

[chickens really]

Sometimes with Duck eggs the bullseye is hard to see.

 

[sylviethecochin]

my eggs have much less egg white. I that normal?

What do you mean?

EDT: Muscovy eggs have relatively large yolks, if that's the concern.