How do you candle a duck egg?
My duck just started laying eggs for the first time 5 days ago..Every morning I have a new one..How do you candle it to see if it is fertile? She has not sit on them at all..Do they need some incubation time before you can see if they are fertile? I tryed I saw that both ends of the egg I can see through and the middle is just solid..Help please!!
Comments
They need to be incubated atleast 5 days before you can easily tell if they are fertile or not.
If your duck is not laying the eggs in her nest ( all the eggs in the same place every morning ) then she will not incubate them. And they will not hatch.
If you wish to hatch the ducklings and she is not broody ( making a nest, setting the eggs, etc.. ) then you can buy an artificial incubator for around $40 and hatch them yourself.
Once you have incubated ( or your duck has ) for about 7-9 days you get a bright flashlight and take the egg into a dark room ( dont worry, they can be without heat for a few minutes ) turn the flashlight on and shine it onto the egg ( placing the flashlight right next to the egg so you can see inside of it ) if it IS fertile you will be able to see small spiderweb like red veins and maybe even a small itty bitty blob ( the embryo )
I hope this helped!
The first answerer gave great information. I would just like to add that the coffee can candler works just as well with only a flashlight as the light source. We have used this method with several clutches and it works great. The best candling time is at 7 days after she has started sitting and then again at 15 days. She will not sit until she has completed her clutch, which can be from 6 to 28 eggs.
It helps if you do it in a room where the lighting is dimmed. Use a small flashlight, because the light from it is more concentrated to a smaller areal. Hold the egg up in front of you, and place the flashlight up close to the egg. If you see small veins, sort of looking like a little road map, it is fertile. Normally, you can't tell until the egg is 7 to 10 days old. Please read my profile
Some good info here:
http://lancaster.unl.edu/4h/Embryology/candling.sh...
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/eggs/res26-candling.h...
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