Cayuga Duck Eggs- odd color yolks

[ShakeragSusan]

I have had chickens for several years, but this is only my second year with ducks. We have Khaki Campbells and this year we bought Cayugas from Rural King. They are beautiful birds, but out of the four we bought, three were drakes. One didn't make it to adulthood.

Anyway, my Cayuga gal started laying eggs a week or so ago. The shells are dark gray, nearly black. That was expected. Today, I cracked one of her eggs for the first time.


The white was clear, as it is with duck eggs, but the yolk was greenish black. It wasn't rotten. There was no smell. The yolk was "perky" like a fresh egg. I broke the yolk to see if the color was on the inside of the yolk. It was. The egg was a week or two old. The pic shows it with a regular chicken egg for comparison. I cracked another of her eggs. It was the same, but less intense color of the egg shell and yolk. Has anyone seen this with Cayugas?

 

[KaleIAm]

Wow, that's startling. I've only had one cayuga but her yolks were the color of the chicken yolk you put in for comparison. She did always have a small fleck of black on her yolks, which you can see in your second photo on the bottom of the yolk.

Her egg shells were always sharpie black at first and each subsequent egg was slightly lighter until they became grey for the rest of the year. We said she was running out of ink. Then she would take a break for winter and when she started up in spring she repeated the sharpie black egg to grey process.

 

[ShakeragSusan]

Thanks for the response. The eggs certainly surprised me!

 

[HappyDuckie]

That egg yolk does look strange. I didn't know Cayuga's lay black eggs, that's really cool!

 

[Spiase20]

Huh, that is weird. My cayuga's yolk was like ever other duck yolk. Maybe since she started laying, it may get better with each egg? Wonder how the others will turn out.

 

[Beaglegal]

I have had chickens for several years, but this is only my second year with ducks. We have Khaki Campbells and this year we bought Cayugas from Rural King. They are beautiful birds, but out of the four we bought, three were drakes. One didn't make it to adulthood.

Anyway, my Cayuga gal started laying eggs a week or so ago. The shells are dark gray, nearly black. That was expected. Today, I cracked one of her eggs for the first time.


The white was clear, as it is with duck eggs, but the yolk was greenish black. It wasn't rotten. There was no smell. The yolk was "perky" like a fresh egg. I broke the yolk to see if the color was on the inside of the yolk. It was. The egg was a week or two old. The pic shows it with a regular chicken egg for comparison. I cracked another of her eggs. It was the same, but less intense color of the egg shell and yolk. Has anyone seen this with Cayugas?

I only have one pure Cayuga and I’ve only owned ducks for a year. When she started laying her first eggs of the season I thought they were cool so I saved them in the fridge and kept them for months. Never did crack one open. When I did start her yolks were normal. This year I’ll look and see what color her yolks are with her really dark eggs. Now I’m curious

 

[Djgm]

I’ve read if they’ve eaten a lot of acorns, that can discolor the yolk like that, is that a possibility?

 

[ShakeragSusan]

I’ve read if they’ve eaten a lot of acorns, that can discolor the yolk like that, is that a possibility?

Absolutely that is possible. My birds forage our wooded property.

 

[KaleIAm]

Absolutely that is possible. My birds forage our wooded property.

Do you have other ducks and only the cayuga's look like that though? Not that it would rule out the acorn theory, maybe the cayuga eats more acorns than the others. I'm very curious about this.

 

[Djgm]

Absolutely that is possible. My birds forage our wooded property.

There happened to be a lot of discussion on this on my local FB Chicken/duck page lol...and lots of green eggs and ham jokes. This is what they came up with: cottonseed meal, acorns, shepherd's purse will all turn yolks green. I don't know what is common in your area, but the acorns and shepherd's purse were the #1 culprits here