How long before I can save eggs and them be fertile?

[moonlitechick]

I just bought a new male duck on Saturday. Not sure how old he is but he has a good drake curl. How long should I wait to start saving eggs to hatch. One of my females is wanting to go broody, but I have been trying to keep her from it because of not having a male old enough to use. How long before I let her have some eggs?

 

[country_girl011]

only way to know is to crack the eggs open and check for fertility

 

[moonlitechick]

Not sure what to look for. I have never been good at that.

 

[DuckLover3]

You could try candling them....After about a week of mama duck sitting on the eggs, you can take one out and go into the house with it and candle it. I do this by going into a dark room with the flashlight and putting the flashlight up to the more rounded end of the egg. That gets light into it so you can see the inside without actually opening up the egg. If you see something developing inside, and not just yolk and white, then that one's fertile. If you want to see what an un-fertile egg looks like, you could buy some eggs and candle those, but a fertile egg that's been developing for a week is pretty easy to tell there's something in there.