Will a dirty fertile duck egg hatch?

[pooponshoe]

I have a couple of people in the local area that want to buy some of my Pekin duck eggs, I get 3 per day. I have 1 drake.

1. If I clean them will they still hatch?
2. How much does a fertile duck egg sell for?
3. What temperature do they need to be kept?
4. When is the soonest I can candle to let a person know they are fertile? Or do I just give them the eggs to find out for themselves?

Thanks for your help.

 

[vfem]

You can't tell a fertile egg by candling it. You'll need to crack one open to tell. I would NOT wash them as there is a thin film called the 'bloom' on the egg... it won't make it impossible to hatch, but it lessens the chances of hatching. I was given 4 FILTHY dirty nasty duck eggs. I didn't wipe them off, left them dirty and 3 developed, and got 2 healthy ducks hatched from all 4. I cracked open the 4th one on day 8 as I saw no development during candling on day 5-8. It turned out to be infertile.

I was going to pay the lady $1 per egg when I got them, but she told me not worry about it. These were pekin eggs by the way... I think the more rare the breed or the better quality of bird I would have paid more.

 

[greyfields]

ducks eggs are always dirty,t hey just seem to drop them wherever they happen to be standing when the urge strikes

 

[NYREDS]

I've seen duck nests on the ground where the eggs were half covered with dirt-you would have had to pry them out of the ground with a stick. They hatched just fine.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Quote:
I was going to say the same thing!
My cayugas are mud puppies and everyone of them hatches here!
Never ever ever wash any egg intended for hatching, as mentioned above, you pretty much kill it.
And with a trained eye and a good candleing light, you can see development by day 4 , easily by day 7.
Day 4 it will look kind of like a little red spider in the center of the yolk when you candle it.
Price is up to you,
Usually, unless they are very close, never start the incubation for some one, let them do it, as the time out of the incubator will chill the egg, and probley kill the germ developing inside.

Crack them open if you dont want to hatch them yourself, and look for that little white bullseye in the center of the yolk. If it's there , they are fertile, and with most ducks, once they are fertile, the boys dont miss much after that!
Aubrey

 

[Webfoot]

I'm going to be the voice of dissent here

I wash all my duck eggs before I set them in the incubator. Ducks are messy and it's just a fact of life that their eggs will be dirty. I've done my own research comparing the hatch rate of washed eggs vs. unwashed and I've found no difference whatsoever. And I know people who have been breeding waterfowl a lot longer than me who are even more meticulous about washing eggs than I am.

My theory is that the "bloom" is more of a chicken thing, and that waterfowl eggs can withstand washing better. I don't have chickens, and I've never incubated chicken eggs, so I can't prove it, it's just my theory.

My old mutt duck has hatched out eggs the last two years, and I've watched her to see how she manages. Her eggs start out just as dirty as any, but when they're turned, they rub against each other and the dirt falls off. She turns them so often that they actually start to get a little shiny. So if they did have bloom, that would be rubbed off pretty quickly.

To my way of thinking, it's more of a risk that a dirty egg in the incubator could become infected and explode, risking the rest of the eggs. I've had eggs that were shipped to me unwashed get infected through tiny cracks that I couldn't detect by candling.

So there's my two cents.

Webfoot

 

[pooponshoe]

Ok, now I am confused. I have someone that wants to buy some to hatch. He said he would take them dirt and all.

What temperature do I have to keep them at, he suggested the house, I thought it was between 55-65 degrees ?

How long can I keep collecting them before they would be considered too old to incubate?

I only get 3 per day but they do add up.

 

[Webfoot]

55-65 is ideal, but they will be fine at house temps for at least a week. They will keep longer at the lower temperatures. I keep mine in my utility room which runs a few degrees cooler than the rest of the house and set them in the incubator about twice a week.

Webfoot

 

[duck&chickencrazy]

Quote:
What if i just run water over them to get a little dirt off.

 

[Fudgie]

Here's my 2 cents worth. I would tend to think washing them off or spritzing them with water is no different than momma duck taking a swim on the pond and coming back to the nest to douse the eggs with water from her bumm. And believe me, they have a lot of water stored up there in that duck and goose down! She is going to "wash" them herself with her feathers squiggling around on the eggs getting comfy and roling them around to turn them and such, so I am not sure there is much difference. You are supposed to spray them as they incubate to get this same effect of the momma.

I wouldn't think there could be much difference there. CHICKENS, I would NOT even think of cleaning off. however, that being said I have 2 very clean and 2 very dirty goose eggs in the incubator at the moment because I really don't want to chance them dying from my stupidity of doing something wrong!!