How do I know if my duck eggs will hatch?
Mу family friend hаѕ ducks аnd chicken іn hіѕ back yard аnd hіѕ family gave mу family 6 fresh chicken eggs аnd 4 fresh duck eggs. I felt ѕο tеrrіblе аbουt mу family eating thеm (I’m a vegetarian, don’t eat eggs), аnd ѕο I sneaked one duck egg out οf thе container… (mу parents bу nο means noticed). I gοt thе duck whеn іt wаѕ relatively still warm οn December 25, 08. Now іѕ January 23, 2009. Thе egg still hasn’t hatched уеt. Iѕ іt dead?
LOL. Oh dear.
Chicken and duck eggs (the kind you eat, that is) are infertile. An egg is a chickens period, it would by no means be converted into a baby duckling, and even if it were fertile, it needs a perfect temperature range to hatch. Fertile eggs are the result of sex with a cockerel/drake duck and you dont usually eat them :p
You would have had to have kept it at 99.9 degrees with no more then 1 degree of variation and have kept the humidity nearly 86%. You also would’ve had to turn the egg about 3-7 times per day while maintenance the ‘huge end’ up. That is, if the egg was even fertilized in the first place.
I keep laying hens and turkeys. It takes a decent incubator and careful monitoring to be able to hatch out a chick.
Typically, it’s best to start incubation within 15 days of the egg being layed, but, the best success rates are within the week it was laid. The egg doesn’t have to be kept warm until you in fact start the incubation process. Once the incubation process has started, more then one degree of variation will start to harm or even kill chicks. A hen will lay eggs and accumulate them if she’s feeling ‘broody’. She won’t in fact start incubating them by setting on them until she has all the eggs laid that she wants to hatch. Some hens don’t get broody and by no means try to hatch their eggs. I only have one hen aptly now that force even try to hatch her eggs.
If your family friend has birds that are allowed to free range, then that would be a excellent source for your family to get eggs from rather then buying them at a store from someone that raised them in battery cages. That’s why I have my own chickens, so that I know they are pleased roaming the yard and eating bugs rather then buying the eggs of a hen that lives in a tiny cage her whole life.
We do eat fertile eggs, they taste exactly the same as regular eggs. Roosters help fend off predators because they are larger and protective of the hens, so it makes sense to keep a hen even if you don’t plot to hatch out chicks.
Eggs, whether they are fertilized by a hen (or drake, in this case) sit in a dormant state for about 10 days after they are laid. There is very small difference between a fertilized or unfertilized egg until the incubation process is started.
Eating an egg does not constitute “killing” a duck or a chick, so delight don’t feel sorry for eggs that are being eaten. Even if the egg was fertilized (which typically doesn’t happen with ducks during winter months), viability of fertilized eggs is nearly 80%.
As long as eggs are collected daily and the hen or hen duck hasn’t started brooding, you can’t even tell which is which.
Fertilized duck eggs take about 28-31 days to hatch and demand proper heating and humidity and need to be turned or they will not develop. Odds are, the egg you “rescued” was infertile and suitable for eating, but is now slowly becoming a stinky time bomb. I’d recommend tossing it out before it rots and explodes!