Candling Duck Eggs

A couple of weeks ago the hubs decided to stick some duck eggs he had collected into the incubator.  It takes duck eggs 28 days to hatch, so they are about half-way through.  About a week ago I candled them for the first time, at which point I threw away the ones that weren't developing.  (You could call those duds.)  If we left the duds in there the whole time, the danger is that bacteria might grow in that lovely warm environment and you could end up with a rotten egg in the incubator.  Gross.  Since nobody wants to have to call Templeton the Rat to carry that off (think Charlotte's Web), that's why we candle eggs.  Oh, and just in case you were wondering why the ducks don't just hatch some babies out themselves...  Well, I've been asking myself that very question for about a year now...  One of them actually did try last year, but none of the eggs made it.  Perhaps she was discouraged after that, and maybe that's why she hasn't tried since.  The other ducks most of the time don't even lay their eggs in a consistent spot every day, so it's a little bit like an Easter egg hunt every morning.  Many domestic duck breeds are just not that likely to reliably set.  I got the less likely to set breeds I suppose, but they are still really pretty and very sweet so there you go.

This is what a regular egg looks like that would come out of your refrigerator so to speak. (Just go in a dark room and use a strong flashlight) There is no embryo development in it at all. If you look closely though you can see the yellow shadow of the yolk.

Here today you can see the big fat red blood vessels and dark shadows indicating embryo development. (About two weeks along) The surest sign that the embryo is definitely alive is the little fluttering movements. As the embryo develops further, it will get harder to see much other than dark shadows because the egg will get so full of duckling!