Triple-yolked eggs in domestic ducks: a rare occurrence

Multiple-yolked avian eggs, and especially triple-yolked (TY) eggs, are rare. Over two years, 48,224 duck eggs (Anas platyrhynchos domesticus) were individually candled and seven (0.0145%) TY eggs were identified in a commercial breeding and incubation environment. When compared with double-yolked eggs (Salamon and Kent,2016) their mean weight, length, width and shape index did not differ, but their dimensions were greater than for single-yolked duck eggs. Yolk fertility in the TY eggs was low (33.33%), and this was attributed to smaller yolk size and early ovulation and/or follicle immaturity. By day 8 of incubation, fertile yolks were positioned next to the airspace. Egg 5 contained one fertile yolk, and the embryo developed to enter the airspace, was consuming all three yolks, but failed to hatch.