Mallards laying eggs

[ruthhope]

OMFG. Are you telling me the eggs I eat from the grocery store COULD have a chick inside of them??

I thought they were just a monthly shedding of an unfertilized egg.

No!! Eggs from a store are from layer hens that haven't seen a drake in their lifetime. Layer hens lay an egg every day and they are not fertilized.

I mean that the eggs your ducks lay look just like store bought eggs whether or not they are fertilized as the embryo doesn't start to develop until the eggs are brooded by the mother duck or substitute!!

You are not the only person to be squeemish about the possibility of fertilized eggs -- I have a friend who wouldn't eat my son's duck eggs when my son had a drake with his girls. My friend now eats the ducks eggs as my son's drake moved to live with me.

However, there really isn't a problem with eating fertilized eggs that have not been brooded. The egg inside the shell looks and tastes like and unfertilized eggs. I know some duck keepers look for a specific spot on the yolk to note whether or not the egg is fertilized, but I don't and you need not! DUck eggs are really nice baked -- I made a strawberry songe cake today with 5 of my son's duck eggs!!!

 

[Luv Ducks]

I have Mallard ducks and along with a couple of other breeds and I eat two eggs every day. I collect them every morning so I know that they are fresh. I have drakes and they are fertile eggs but since I collect them regularly I am sure to find no beaks, lol.