Pekin ducks I am officially confused.

[Stonebridge-CA]

I own three hens and a drake. I have decided to try and hatch out a clutch of eggs. My issue is how do you tell which eggs have been fertilized and which ones haven't. My duck hens have been laying three-four eggs a day the last four days. Today I only found two eggs and its very obvious that they are not fertile but they might be. Is there a way to tell if the drake got to them?

 

[Amiga]

How are you determining fertility?

(I am not a pro at this, just hoping to get more details here so someone who knows all about this can jump in.)

Welcome to the Forum (c:

 

[Stonebridge-CA]

That's my question Amiga. It used to be easy until they stopped laying in late December and started laying again about three weeks ago.

 

[Stonebridge-CA]

BTW I don't have a lot of time to sit on here but once a month since joining last spring.

 

[Amiga]

I can appreciate that.

From anything I have read here, the way to determine fertility is to candle after some number of days of incubation.

See if this thread helps.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/840237/i-candled-my-pekin-duck-eggs-are-they-fertile

There is also the waterfowl hatching guide in the stickies (link to stickies at top of duck forum)

 

[The Chickeneer]

You can crack some open for breakfast. The way people here have discovered how to tell a fertile egg from a non fertile, is by looking at certain spot on the yolk. There should be a white dot on every yolk. If the dot is surrounded by a ring, it is fertile. It is described as looking like a bull's eye. This is known as the Blastoderm, and is also refereed to as the germinal disc, and means the egg is fertile. i would just eat the eggs everyday, until you start seeing the bulls eye, then after you know thy are laying fertile eggs, start saving them. I don't think there is any other way to tell if an eggs is fertile or not unless you crack it open using this method, or incubate it for a time.


This one is fertile

This one is not
Hope this helped