What are the typical percentages of fertile vs infertile eggs in your experience?

[PaulX]

Hello,

I ordered 24 fertile duck eggs 7 days ago and have been incubating them.

The shipping of the eggs took only one day from the farm to my house, and when they arrived the air cells were so so tiny, I suppose they were super fresh. Plus, all the air cells were intact and there was no crack at all in 23 of the eggs.

Anyway, what surprised me today is, I just candled them for the first time (and first time ever incubating and candling) and I think I saw veins in all of them. 15 of them clearly had an embryo and the veins clearly look like the spider-web-like thing I saw online. The other 9... I'm positive I saw veins even though I can't find where the embryo was located. I'm almost positive there was no blood ring. Well, it's my first time ever so I'm not confident what I saw in these 9. Anyways, safe to say, this means I have 100% fertility in all of my eggs!

I certainly didn't expect this. I presumed at first that about 20% would be infertile, and I actually only expected to hatch 25% of the eggs given that I'm inexperienced, my incubator is a cheap one, and I didn't even have a second thermometer to calibrate it until today. So, fingers crossed I might just hatch 'em all now lol. Tho I'm only planning to keep 3 (and hoping I can correctly identify females by vent-sexing)

Well, the question, as in topic header, is that, in your experience (or maybe you have data from some scientific studies), what is the percentage of fertile vs infertile eggs from your flock or from eggs you order? Also does the higher drake to duck ratio means more fertility percentage?

I'm talking about only the case that you intend to have fertile eggs of course, not when you only keep flock of all ducks or simply bought the eggs from the supermarket.

 

[NoFlyBackFarm]

Mine is always 100% then again I have 6 roosters so

 

[diamondsilkies]

Wow! 100% fertility is great, especially in shipped eggs! The last time I ordered eggs, none were fertile, and the first time, I only got 6/15 to hatch. Most people have different fertility rates in their flocks, because there are a lot of factors. More males to females usually does give a higher fertility rate (although you do want to be careful that you don't put too many males in). My main flock's fertility is usually very high, somewhere from 90-100%. My seramas have lower fertility rates, but that's a standard of the breed. I believe it has to do with how they've been bred for their tiny size.

Also, I would warn you to be careful with vent-sexing. I've never done it myself or put much research into it, but from what I've heard it can be dangerous if you haven't been properly trained. But again, that's just what I've heard.

Hope you get all your babies to hatch!

 

[PaulX]

Also, I would warn you to be careful with vent-sexing. I've never done it myself or put much research into it, but from what I've heard it can be dangerous if you haven't been properly trained. But again, that's just what I've heard.

Hope you get all your babies to hatch!

Thanks. True I'm not totally confident in my vent-sexing (tried it on four 8-week olds only once), but hatching eggs and attempting to vent sex is about the only way to get females around here (except maybe by industrial scale purchase from trustworthy farms). Pet ducks are not common at all here and the pet markets will only sell drakes (while telling you they're ducks... been there done that)