Duck Eggs

I’ve been reading a lot of the posts on here and checking online. We inherited two ducks, a female that is a Pekin and unsure of the male, possibly a Mallard. The Pekin has laid eggs and this started around the end of September and her last around October 11. In total we had 17 eggs, but we are done to 15. As we have never had ducks or chickens, I am not sure what to do now. I tried to candle but I don’t think I’m doing it right nor was I sure if I should touch the egg. My husband broke an egg and it had a yolk. She is still sitting on them, however, today, she rolled one out of the nest. What do I do? When do I remove all eggs and discard them? Is there a trick to candeling and being sure I know what I’m looking for? Can I touch the eggs? Any advice would be helpful! I’m just starting to worry that too much time has passed and they are not fertile. Thank you in advance!

Pamela, welcome to Permies!

I've only had Muscovy ducks, but I believe Pekins take about 28 days to hatch. So you're not overdue. I'd leave them alone for several more days and see what happens. If Mama Duck rolls some of them out of the nest, she probably knows they are duds. I'd remove those.

Maybe an expert will be along shortly, but it sounds to me like they are not viable. Even the ones latest laid should have a rather noticeable chick in them by now. I had some pekins that were prolific egg layers once. We ate them rather than let them hatch.

I raise Peking, just for home consumption, but am not an expert.

Peking are notoriously bad are hatching out their own eggs. Female Malards are supposed to be better, but I've never had any Malards.

I've had a hen basically sit on, and spoil, three separate clutches of 20-30 eggs this year. She was persistent, but kept messing up one way or another (sometimes due to the other ducks, and even chickens, to be fair).

I've had success hatching them in an incubator though.

If she's rolling out bad eggs, I'd let her keep doing her thing until it gets to day 32 (They start hatching day 27-28, but it can take up to 72 hours for all the eggs to hatch).

Just a yolk? This is the egg she rolled out of the nest.