Dark spot under shell in duck egg about to hatch...PICTURE!!

[CrookedCoopRanch]

This duck egg had movement up until yesterday. I noticed this morning that there is a darker patchy area on the inside surface of the air sac area, you can see it in the pic. What does this mean? There's no movement still.

 

[SunHwaKwon]

Perhaps the shell membrane has become dislodged. In any case I don't see anything to worry me. The lack of movement is concerning though. What day is it on? Considering how far drawn down it is, it may have shrink wrapped.

 

[CrookedCoopRanch]

Thank you for responding. I'm not sure what day. There are two surviving eggs in this hatch, the mother had been brooding but started ripping the shells off of the babies and killed three so I took the remaining eggs from her and put them in my incubator a few days ago. The other egg has just started to externally pip, and is peeping like crazy. This egg hasn't had movement to my knowledge today and hasn't made any peep noise. The air sacs have been very large the whole time(like 50%++ of the egg) which was concerning to me. But I guess I was hoping since the other was doing so well so far that they'd both do well. Any advice appreciated.

 

[SunHwaKwon]

I assume they are from your own birds and not shipped, right? I had some turkey eggs that looked like that but they were shipped.

You can always take some shell off and take a look to see if there is breathing movements. I would suggest the float test, but that is hit or miss in my experience.

 

[CrookedCoopRanch]

These are from my own ducks. They are first time mothers and weren't the greatest brooders at first so I don't know if that had anything to do with it?

 

[SunHwaKwon]

I'm not sure. My first thought was a thin spot in the shell but you say it just appeared. With my shipped eggs I think it was the result of shipping trauma.

 

[CrookedCoopRanch]

Yes, it just appeared overnight. It wasn't there yesterday. I hope the little guy will make it.