Fertility or Infertility. Another Duck Egg Link.....

I found some more detailed info about how to tell weather your eggs are fertilized or not at this site.

As much as I believe that we do not have any male ducks or fertilized eggs, I gave another friend some eggs and told her they are not fertilized....after she cracked some this weekend she said she thinks the eggs are fertilized. She did like eating them and commented on the bright colored yolks! ! :) I'm in the process of finding out what she is seeing and thinking. Until then, of course I am doing more Internet research and egg cracking to compare pictures!! :) I am certainly no egg expert, but I was really confident that they aren't fertile. I may attempt incubating just to be super sure. It wouldn't bother me if they are fertilized...they are still fine for eating, but then they could also be hatchable too - I'd just like to know so that I can tell people if they are or aren't and be sure about it! I thought I was sure, now I am not so sure! LOL :) Story of my life.

Yesterday I hard-boiled some Duck Eggs....oh man, were they delicious! The kids loved them! Going to try making deviled eggs with them soon!

Those Naughty Dirty, Dirty, Divas.....And Everything You Wanted To Know About Duck Eggs...

Or you can call this post "Yes, we have NO bananas". (If you have read the book 'Eat, Pray, Love' it just made that banana reference even funnier. Sorry, I'm in a good mood and thus my warped sense of humor shines through)

There is not a drake one in our flock. That is, not unless he does a VERY good job of female impersonation. No one has a darker head. No one has any curved tail feathers. No one has anything characteristic of a boy duckie. They all look just alike, even the one that sounds a little different. I know what you are thinking...but the pool surfing and the weird egg thing.....Yes, let me tell you what I have learned!!!!!

Over at The New Agrarian under the section of Raising Ducks: 4 - 5 months They reported this from their female duck experience....."More new behavior: when the ducks get into the pool first thing each morning, they hump each other. It seems to be the same ducks every day, but it doesn’t correspond to what we thought was the pecking order. It began just after we found the first eggs, and the ducks we believed to be laying first were the ones being humped, so our best guess is that the ducks who were less sexually mature were a bit confused by the new hormones in the flock. But the morning ritual continues now that everyone is laying, and so we really have no idea what is going on."

Humping....surfing....po-ta-to...po-tat-o. :) Apparently this is something that girly ducks do. They are ornery like that, you know. Why do they do it? I have no clue. Maybe I'll become the Duck Whisperer and we'll find out. Or maybe you are a Duck Whisperer and you can tell me?!?!?!

Eggs....Consider this your crash course on duck eggs. While I didn't get to see the egg that my hubby's friend thought was fertilized, I have seen two from ours that I think may be what they saw. Mink Hollow Farm has a great page about duck eggs. There I learned about Meat Spots.....

This is a meat spot. (Photos courtesy of Mink Hollow Farm)

This is a Meat Spot visible through candling.

So what is a meat spot? Mink Hollow Farm says that "Meat spots, while unappetising, are generally considered to be harmless. They are thought to be what's left of some tissue that has been sloughed off during or shortly after the yolk was released into the oviduct. The most likely explanation is that the meat spot is a piece of the follicle that once held a yolk. Sometimes a bit tears off. Another possibility is that a follicle that is no longer functional breaks down and 'falls off' from the ovary.Eggs containing meat spots are generally considered unsuitable for hatching. The meat spot can usually be easily removed."

So the presence of a Meat Spot does not mean an egg is fertile. I have begun candling all of our eggs to spot anything unusual and I have had two that contained a meat spot. I suspect this is what hubby's friend saw too.

Next egg fact...the Chalazae. Go here to hear that word spoken. I did, but I still can't say it right! The Chalazae is the white cloudy looking stuff. See it? Bottom left? Sometimes it looks like a tiny squiggly pig tail or a teeny tiny umbilical cord, which it pretty much is, and anchors the yolk. It is a normal part of an INFERTILE egg. It is perfectly natural and normal. It's presence also means your eggs are FRESH. As the egg ages, the Chalazae shrinks and becomes less noticeable. So they are really noticible in our eggs!

And the next egg one...you can almost barely see it in the picture above (top center of the yolk, not the bright camera flash spot on the bottom right) but our duck eggs tend to have a tiny noticeable light dot on the yolk. This is called the True Egg. For an egg to become fertile, it must be present, but it's presence does not indicate an egg is fertile. It is just a normal part of an egg and means it is a good egg.

Last but not least, the shells are thicker than a chicken egg shell, so you have to make sure you give them a good hard bonk on the side of your cast iron skillet.

So, there you have it. No boy ducks and lots of crazy egg info! I'm sure I have left something out that you are dying to know, so any questions? Ask away! :)

Ladies & Gentlemen...I Think We May Have An Impostor Among Us...

Well, an impostor among the Dirty Divas, that is. I think one may very well be...A BOY! Well, a drake, technically, but a boy nonetheless. What makes me think this? Two things. Three actually. Wait, four.

Number one....remember this post about our first eggs when I said we noticed some odd duck behavior in the pool? One duck was surfing on another's back and hanging on to it's neck feathers with its beak? Faith from over at Lemonade Adventures commented and said that she thought it was mating behavior. At the time I thought it was funny, because they are all girls! Right? RIGHT? I'm not so sure now!

So...number two. We had this one egg that we found in their play yard instead of in the coop. It was different than the others. It was darker, kind of splotchy looking. I thought maybe since it sat outside for who knows how long it was just a bad egg. Since we are new to this whole duck and egg thing, I marked it with a black X with the intention of looking into it further. However, I went ahead and put it in a carton with other eggs until I could get back to it, because you know I am a busy mom and all, and my husband gave that dozen to a friend of his! Which was lovely, but then he found out that when they cracked that egg with the X there was an embryo in it! Or so that is what they think it was. Since I didn't get to see it, and probably wouldn't know what I was looking at if I had, I have no clue if that is what it really was. Man, I wish I could have seen it!

Number three...there is one duck that does not sound the same as the others. It never has. I never gave it much thought...until now!

Number four...we ordered a straight run of 15 Khaki Campbell female chicks and they threw in an extra chick, as hatcheries tend to do, so perhaps number sixteen IS a boy?

So my suspicions are heightened and I have a lot of observation to do to get to the bottom of this foul mystery!

Can you spot the fake...I mean Drake?

Me neither. But I'll keep you updated on this investigation!!! Oh and one more thing, if there is a boy, I will be absolutely thrilled! I had planned on getting a couple this spring! :)

Three and a Half Eggs.......

My son went out to collect duck eggs this evening. He's how it went....

Him - Mom, guess how many eggs I found?

Me - How many?

Him - Three and a half!

Me - Huh? Was one broken?

Nope, just tiny! It is adorable! Do we have a tiny duck hiding out there amongst the Dirty Divas?

And he is way excited to eat that tiny egg for breakfast tomorrow! :) I still haven't had a chance to eat a duck egg, maybe tomorrow morning, but my son has and he loves them! He said they are way better than a chicken egg. That made me smile! :)

Much more to update about my follow up trip to the Dr today and the Guineas. But for now I am hitting the tub with some lavender Epsom salt and then heading to bed. Big hugs to all of you and I wish you a peaceful night!

Some Very Egg-citing News!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Dirty Divas have laid their first eggs! These three were in their house today. They laid them on the floor...not an egg one in the nest boxes.

How many ducks can you fit in a kiddy pool? Sixteen!

We also noticed some interesting duck behavior today...when they were all in the pool one was standing on another one's back and holding onto it's neck feathers with it's beak! Some kind of odd duck surfing? :) These are the three duck eggs on the right and a regular store bought chicken egg on the left. Only fitting that the Dirty Divas lay dirty eggs! :) LOL

And last but certainly not least...the Guineas! Aren't they cute? I should have taken pictures last week...they have more than doubled in size and are getting feathers already! Orschlen had chick days going on last week so I came home with eight of these babies. We lost one to a nasty case of what I think was pasty butt - we tried to save him but it didn't work - luckily they replaced him so we still have 8. We got three Pearls, three Royal Purple, and two Lavender.

They are talkative little fellas! One of the first things I noticed is that they chirp non-stop when they are awake.

A tiny little pumpkin update...the squash bugs got the main vines, but not until after we had harvested a lot. The neat thing is that on the back side of our house in the pasture we have volunteer pumpkin vines growing from pumpkins we tossed out there last year! So this means we WILL have more pumpkins for Halloween! There are a lot on the vines and not one squash bug in sight. I hope those dirty beggars stay away!