# How to Get Fertile Duck Eggs?



## Alpine Crazy (Jul 14, 2019)

Hi everyone! I don't know much about poultry, other than what's needed to keep some ducks and chickens for the eggs. But we have a male duck and 2 females. A couple years ago we had some other ducks who were laying and we left them to see if they would hatch. The ducks never got broody or anything. The ducks we have now haven't started laying but I have caught them mating. Is there something I could do now to maybe make the chances of broody ducks and fertile eggs more possible?


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

You have to have a duck breed that goes broody. Broody only comes naturally.


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## Alpine Crazy (Jul 14, 2019)

ksalvagno said:


> You have to have a duck breed that goes broody. Broody only comes naturally.


Breed as in mate or breed as in kind of duck? I've seen them breeding.


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## Sfgwife (Feb 18, 2018)

Alpine Crazy said:


> Breed as in mate or breed as in kind of duck? I've seen them breeding.


Kind of duck...


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## Alpine Crazy (Jul 14, 2019)

Sfgwife said:


> Kind of duck...


Oh wow really? So if I want ducklings I will have to put the eggs in an incubator?


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Yes you will.


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## Alpine Crazy (Jul 14, 2019)

ksalvagno said:


> Yes you will.


Ok thank you I will look into some. How do I know if the egg is fertile?


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## Sfgwife (Feb 18, 2018)

Alpine Crazy said:


> Ok thank you I will look into some. How do I know if the egg is fertile?


If you research breeds of ducks... look for one that goes broody. Those breeds will sit eggs and hatch them. A fertile egg has a bullseye around a spot in the yoke just like a fertile chicken egg. Or just buy an incubator.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

You have to candle them and look for above description.


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## Drmike (Jun 23, 2019)

Or get a couple of silkie chickens....they are permanently broody and will happily hatch your duck eggs...or rocks or anything they can. Lot of people use them to hatch other birds eggs

My silkies go broody every few weeks.

Ducks are notoriously non broody. But if you get silkies you can’t keep them with the male ducks (they can injure then when they try to mate)


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## Sfgwife (Feb 18, 2018)

Drmike said:


> Or get a couple of silkie chickens....they are permanently broody and will happily hatch your duck eggs...or rocks or anything they can. Lot of people use them to hatch other birds eggs
> 
> My silkies go broody every few weeks.
> 
> Ducks are notoriously non broody. But if you get silkies you can't keep them with the male ducks (they can injure then when they try to mate)


Or black copper marans. Eesh! These birds are drivin me mad with their broodies! Lol. I love their egg color but i am not sure if it is worth this nonsense.


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## Alpine Crazy (Jul 14, 2019)

Drmike said:


> Or get a couple of silkie chickens....they are permanently broody and will happily hatch your duck eggs...or rocks or anything they can. Lot of people use them to hatch other birds eggs
> 
> My silkies go broody every few weeks.
> 
> Ducks are notoriously non broody. But if you get silkies you can't keep them with the male ducks (they can injure then when they try to mate)


How would they hurt them? Are they smaller than normal chickens? We have our chickens with our male duck and they don't mate or anything.


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## Alpine Crazy (Jul 14, 2019)

Sfgwife said:


> Or black copper marans. Eesh! These birds are drivin me mad with their broodies! Lol. I love their egg color but i am not sure if it is worth this nonsense.


Haha broody chickens are the worst! But the outcome is worth the trouble lol


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## Sfgwife (Feb 18, 2018)

Alpine Crazy said:


> Haha broody chickens are the worst! But the outcome is worth the trouble lol


Not when you are done with replacement chicks for the year. :/. I recently had our plymouth rock come home with two chicks. I didnt even realize that stinker was gone! Eesh lol! And i should have.... she went to jail every few months and she had not been in a bit.

With the bcm... i love their egg color cause mine are super super dark.... but.. not sure if i will get anymore when these go. They are a pita. I thought we would be not fightin so so much broody with no silkies lol! Guess i was wrong wrong wrong!


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## Drmike (Jun 23, 2019)

Alpine Crazy said:


> How would they hurt them? Are they smaller than normal chickens? We have our chickens with our male duck and they don't mate or anything.


ducks actually have a penis. It's like a corkscrew and it can cause serious damage even death to a hen if a drake tries to mate it, as sometimes happens. It's quite common for a drake to try and mount hens especially if there's no rooster

if your lucky you may never experience it but just to be aware that it does sometimes happen.

You can limit risk by having a high female to male duck ratio and keep a rooster

I of course should not have said you 'can't' keep them together, plenty of people do. It's up to individual to assess their flock personalities and degree of risk they are comfortable with. To me knowing Hens have been killed by mating drakes I wouldn't be comfortable with it especially seeing as I have no rooster but as mentioned plenty of people do it


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## Drmike (Jun 23, 2019)

Sfgwife said:


> Or black copper marans. Eesh! These birds are drivin me mad with their broodies! Lol. I love their egg color but i am not sure if it is worth this nonsense.


I use the wire cage method it works well and they stop being broody after three or four days


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## Sfgwife (Feb 18, 2018)

Drmike said:


> I use the wire cage method it works well and they stop being broody after three or four days


We have a jail cell with no nest stuff and It takes bout four days too... but they do it over and over and over. Get them unbroody and in a few weeks they are at it again.


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## Drmike (Jun 23, 2019)

Sfgwife said:


> We have a jail cell with no nest stuff and It takes bout four days too... but they do it over and over and over. Get them unbroody and in a few weeks they are at it again.


Yup same here my girls go broody every three weeks or so then I get no eggs from them for another week or so. It's a pain


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## Sfgwife (Feb 18, 2018)

Drmike said:


> ducks actually have a penis. It's like a corkscrew and it can cause serious damage even death to a hen if a drake tries to mate it, as sometimes happens. It's quite common for a drake to try and mount hens especially if there's no rooster
> 
> if your lucky you may never experience it but just to be aware that it does sometimes happen.
> 
> ...


Turkeys also..no penis but you get flat chicken syndrome... our turks live with the goats and gow.


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## NigerianNewbie (Jun 6, 2018)

Sfgwife said:


> Turkeys also..no penis but you get flat chicken syndrome... our turks live with the goats and gow.


:funnytech:


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