Single-yolked vs double-yolked eggs in ducks and geese: how to put these in different baskets?

In waterfowl farms used for producing meat and eggs, a problem of discerning double-yolked (DY) and single-yolked (SY) eggs is rather actual. While in some parts of the world DY eggs are popular as a food product, DY eggs are undesired for hatcheries due to their lower fertility and poorer hatchability. After examining the morphological parameters of duck and goose DY and SY eggs, we determined a suite of their measured and calculated variables. We developed mathematical formulae that can be used to calculate the estimated quantity of yolks in duck or goose eggs. In this experiment, this innovative analytical approach enabled us to achieve 8.4% of erroneously placed SY eggs in a DY ‘basket’ for ducks and 3.2% for geese. We also considered options to increase further their identification accuracy. This study provides an instrumental prerequisite for developing respective practical analytical techniques for sorting waterfowl SY vs DY eggs.