hi im jean1421 in jersey in the channel islands and ive been reading your posts and must say im begining to believe most of you are correct my trout coloured girl named cod has been sitting on 6 eggs now for nearly full term but tonight i found her marching along with her sister chips and sue and sooty our male duck very happy to be out and about, im gutted as we hoped wed hear the patter of tiny webbed feet, 3 def fertile the 4th not, shed already thrown out the other 2 last week, the eggs are cold now as i think shes been off them most of the day, is this the end before the begining for my little uns or is there a glimmer of hope for them. You can tell the boys from the girls from about few weeks old but you need to know what you are doing for fear of damage to their male bits or you can wait until they get that curl in their tail, a friend of mine sexed my last lot of babies that my silkie hen gloria hatched nearly 3yrs ago poor thing still walking like john wayne now, lol , she was so devoted to them but horrified when they jumped into the water bowl, silkies as you know hate water you should seen them today in the rain ha all in the chicken house (a childs unused play house big enough for a person of my height to stand up in with an upstairs part too)( lorrizon for layers we call it) looking out the door more sense than some of us humans it seems,