Dark grey egg yolks coming from one of my ducks.

[Jmiller89]

Hello, at least one of my ducks has started laying these nasty eggs. The one pictured is at most 2 days old, they do not smell rotten. My thoughts are 1. Duck is eating something. 2. Duck has infection. 3. Some weird just started laying thing since I believe it’s one of the birds that just molted. Questions. Are they safe to eat? Is there some kind of natural way to get rid of infection by possibly putting in their feed or water. I do not know which duck is laying the grey eggs. TIA

you can see from the pictures the I cracked ones. The larger egg is going to be a nasty one.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

What feed are they on? Do your ducks free range and are there any oak trees near you? The most common cause of a duck yolks turning a dark brown grey is from eating foods that are high in tannins like acorns, grapes, cranberries, strawberries, blueberries, apples, apricots, barley, peaches, dry fruits, mint, basil, rosemary etc.

 

[Jmiller89]

What feed are they on? Do your ducks free range and are there any oak trees near you? The most common cause of a duck yolks turning a dark brown grey is from eating foods that are high in tannins like acorns, grapes, cranberries, strawberries, blueberries, apples, apricots, barley, peaches, dry fruits, mint, basil, rosemary etc.

They free range and it’s raining acorns right now so that’s probably it. Don’t know why I didn’t think of that. I’m assuming they are safe to eat then.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

They free range and it’s raining acorns right now so that’s probably it. Don’t know why I didn’t think of that. I’m assuming they are safe to eat then.

You know I've heard a lot of people say they're toxic, but I have yet to see concrete studies showing they actually are to ducks. I do know that wild ducks eat them ALL of the time and there are actual studies that have been conducted showing the majority of a wild mallard's winter diet is in fact acorns. If acorns were truly so toxic to ducks and such a large piece of a wild ducks winter diet is composed of acorns well....it would be raining dead ducks
https://www.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/pubs/21072

 

[Jmiller89]

You know I've heard a lot of people say they're toxic, but I have yet to see concrete studies showing they actually are to ducks. I do know that wild ducks eat them ALL of the time and there are actual studies that have been conducted showing the majority of a wild mallard's winter diet is in fact acorns. If acorns were truly so toxic to ducks and such a large piece of a wild ducks winter diet is composed of acorns well....it would be raining dead ducks
https://www.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/pubs/21072

It’s a little disturbing to see them eat acorns and slowly watch a ball go down their throat. I’ve also seen them eat wild mushrooms, they eaither weren’t poisonous ones or aren’t poisonous to ducks because they are still with us.

 

[Jean Louise]

I am having the same issue as posted above. My ducks are laying eggs with brownish color yolks. It could be their free range diet, but this just started happening after a molt and I see the same was mentioned above. Could this be related to molting? My ducks didn’t lay for 6 weeks during the molt.

 

[Jmiller89]

I am having the same issue as posted above. My ducks are laying eggs with brownish color yolks. It could be their free range diet, but this just started happening after a molt and I see the same was mentioned above. Could this be related to molting? My ducks didn’t lay for 6 weeks during the molt.

Molting just happens during the same season as acorns falling. Your ducks are eating the acorns. Mine haven’t been eating them this year, guess I rehomed my acorn eaters.