[darrena]

My 2 welsh harlequin ducks are now 18 weeks old and we are hoping for some eggs soon.
I was wondering what the risk of Salmonella is with duck eggs especially knowing that they spend alot of time swimming and drinking in very dirty water that as much as you try to keep clean will always contain their poo.
Should you hard boil the eggs or am I just warrying about nothing? Sure I read somewhere that there is a risk with ducks but i may be wrong

Many Thanks
Darren

[Foxy]

IMO I wouldn't be concerned,Salmonella is more a risk in overcrowded, and unhygenic conditions If you have just 2 ducks kept in good, clean conditions I really wouldn't worry!

Just make sure you collect the eggs early as ducks aren't too particular about where they they lay, and although their eggs are not as porous as a chickens eggs best to collect them straight away just to be on the safe side

Finally,ducks tend to be really hardy compared to chickens, and rarely seem to suffer from illness, so, as a precaution just make sure that if a duck does look under the weather, or snuffly best to get checked/tested by a vet, and not to consume their eggs.

[Kate and her Ducks]

Duck eggs got a reputation for being high risk for salmonella after a list was publishes of high risk foods.....   just after WWII! There isn't much more recent information and icecream was on the list too but I'm not stopping eating that either. There really isn't much info about but I usually eat mine any way I would eat a hen egg and I like mine soft boiled and I've never had a problem.

Some info here:

http://www.practicallyedible.com/edible.nsf/pages/duckeggs

[Aunt Sally]

I think it's one of those myths that just hangs around.  Ducks don't lay in nestingboxes by choice so if the ducks are out and about the will lay wherever they fancy.  So a nest of eggs found under a hedge could be any age and have picked up microbes from the surrounding soil where other animals could have pood 

Duck keepers nowadays keep their birds in their duck shed until mid morning so that their eggs are laid in clean conditions and collected the same day.

[Kate and her Ducks]

I have very obliging ducks and they generally all lay before I let them out at 7am but I understand that some tend to lay later in the morning.

[Foxy]

Mine have just stopped laying..

[Kate and her Ducks]

My Welsh Harlequins haven't started laying yet but my Patrick babies are laying like champions. All the older ducks stopped a month ago.