First Egg!! 19 Weeks Old

[davidsonroost]

Egg #2 - no shell, but very pretty!

When you posted this I was wondering how a bird can lay an egg with no shell. Couldn't wrap my head around it till this morning. My daughter brought in eggs that the ducks had just layed after being let out of the coop into the yard. She brought this in.
Now my question for everyone is this. Why did this hapen? Is something wrong with my birds? Do I need to give them something to not let this happen again? And is it ok to eat this egg?

 

[Amiga]

There are a few reasons this could happen, there may or may not be something wrong, it is not uncommon, you can do a number of things to try to help (depending on what is happening internally with the ducks), and if it were me, if the egg were in a relatively clean place (dry leaves, straw) and the membrane intact, I would open it into a clear small dish and inspect it visually and with the sniff test and if all seemed fine I would cook it up, hard scrambled, and enjoy it.


Ducks that start up, whether brand new or restarting, and sometimes randomly, lay an odd egg like that.

Sometimes my runners start laying those after several months of daily laying. My theory is their egg systems just get tired. Once they take a rest, they are fine again.

Sometimes there are oviduct problems. Infections or just systems that don't quite work right for no understandable reason.

Sometimes the ducks are not ingesting enough calcium, or the proper calcium to phosphorus ratio, or enough D3.

Here are some possible helps. I won't call them solutions because they don't always work, or work right away.

Layer pellets (instead of maintenance ration . . . but not if you have drakes*)
Free choice oyster shell
sprinkling oyster shell into pellets (see note above*)
sprinkling oyster shell dust into water *
dandelion greens
extra vitamins
calcium gluconate in their water or moistened food* - note moistened food must be changed out before it gets moldy

If you have drakes, you might try temporarily putting them into a separate area, I mean even for a few hours, so you can give your girls a calcium party and see if they will ingest some more.

 

[kellypepperk]

The only "problem" eggs we had were on that very first day - I'm assuming because the girls are new layers. We pretty much expected to have a few that we weren't going to be able to use early on...

Since the first day - a week ago today, we've gotten 5 good eggs. My husband decorated an egg carton in the fridge to differentiate it from the chicken eggs. Every morning is such a joy! We're tracking the progress to see if there is a pattern. Pretty much every other day at this point. We're thinking that only one of our 3 girls are laying right now. Hubby won't let me put the critter cam out to see who is laying. Last time we aimed the critter cam at the ducks I got over 540 pix in one night!

 

[davidsonroost]

This is the first one ever too. We had many before and a few after as well. Not sure who is laying but we suspect it is our speckled duck and I really don't know what she is either. We got all our ducks and geese and newest chickens all from Atwoods this year as babies. The chickens were all pretty much seperated by breeds but the ducks and geese were not. So she is up for grabs on what she is. But she sure is a pretty thing and pretty loving too.

 

[dalepres]

Well, why not post a pic of the duck and let's see if we can identify it for you. Of course it could just be a mutt.

 

[Miss Lydia]

 

[davidsonroost]

Well, why not post a pic of the duck and let's see if we can identify it for you. Of course it could just be a mutt.

It prob is a mutt but a darn pretty mutt lol We named her Speckled well the girls named her lol

 

[Miss Lydia]

It prob is a mutt but a darn pretty mutt lol We named her Speckled well the girls named her lol

Shes a cutie for sure.

 

[kellypepperk]

A.D.O.R.A.B.L.E.!!

 

[kellypepperk]

Well, we've gotten eggs quite consistantly, we still don't know who is laying. Hubby made pumpkin cream cheese muffins this afternoon - we had a great pumpkin season. Well, the cream cheese mixture called for an egg and this is what we got... we're so excited!!