Green eggs and ham, anyone? (Duck egg with VERY GREEN eggwhite!)

[Papaye]

Hi.

I once had a chicken hen that laid eggs with blue eggwhite... and I had ended up understanding it was because the (bad) eggshell quality...!!
A bacteria had probably infected the egg - or whatever, you know...?

In any case, the eggs smelled and tasted bad.

Green eggwhites apparently mean a spoilage due to Pseudonomas bacteria, so I would not have given the egg back to the birds...

...But then again : ducks are stronger than they look, so if they don't act weird, yours are probably fine.

Still, just in case : I would mix some dried Thyme with their food; and for 24 to 48 hours, put Apple Cider Vinegar in their water (1 tablespoon of ACV per liter of water, in a PLASTIC waterer).

Actually, I would also mix food grade Diatomaceous Earth with their food - in a PLASTIC feeder (given I don't know if putting DE in metal is a good idea...?) -, at least so to strengthen the eggshells and prevent bacterias to enter the eggs BY the eggshell...
(Calcium is good, but food grade DE provides so much more - good things - than Calcium alone...!)

 

[OneEggToRuleThemAll]

Hi.

I once had a chicken hen that laid eggs with blue eggwhite... and I had ended up understanding it was because the (bad) eggshell quality...!!
A bacteria had probably infected the egg - or whatever, you know...?

In any case, the eggs smelled and tasted bad.

Green eggwhites apparently mean a spoilage due to Pseudonomas bacteria, so I would not have given the egg back to the birds...

...But then again : ducks are stronger than they look, so if they don't act weird, yours are probably fine.

Still, just in case : I would mix some dried Thyme with their food; and for 24 to 48 hours, put Apple Cider Vinegar in their water (1 tablespoon of ACV per liter of water, in a PLASTIC waterer).

Actually, I would also mix food grade Diatomaceous Earth with their food - in a PLASTIC feeder (given I don't know if putting DE in metal is a good idea...?) -, at least so to strengthen the eggshells and prevent bacterias to enter the eggs BY the eggshell...
(Calcium is good, but food grade DE provides so much more - good things - than Calcium alone...!)

Thank you for this great advice!

 

[HollowOfWisps]

What you are seeing isn’t bacteria, but a chemical reaction. The Sulfur and Iron on the yolks surface sometimes react during the cooking process. The iron and sulfur reaction then creates Ferrous Sulfide which is the green ring you are seeing around the yolk. In duck eggs this reaction is often much more noticeable than with chicken eggs because duck eggs contain higher amounts of both iron and sulfur.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

What you are seeing isn’t bacteria, but a chemical reaction. The Sulfur and Iron on the yolks surface sometimes react during the cooking process. The iron and sulfur reaction then creates Ferrous Sulfide which is the green ring you are seeing around the yolk. In duck eggs this reaction is often much more noticeable than with chicken eggs because duck eggs contain higher amounts of both iron and sulfur.

Then why just this one egg out of the whole batch?

 

[OneEggToRuleThemAll]

What you are seeing isn’t bacteria, but a chemical reaction. The Sulfur and Iron on the yolks surface sometimes react during the cooking process. The iron and sulfur reaction then creates Ferrous Sulfide which is the green ring you are seeing around the yolk. In duck eggs this reaction is often much more noticeable than with chicken eggs because duck eggs contain higher amounts of both iron and sulfur.

It is not just a green ring around the yolk. With respect (seriously! ), I do know that egg yolks can turn green when over boiled. I've got kids and we dye eggs for Easter, and all those yolks turn green around the outside.

This egg is different. The entire eggwhite is green all the way through.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

It is not just a green ring around the yolk. With respect (seriously! ), I do know that egg yolks can turn green when over boiled. I've got kids and we dye eggs for Easter, and all those yolks turn green around the outside.

This egg is different. The entire eggwhite is green all the way through.

Do you have well water? Because iron in water can cause the white as well to turn green through the same reaction process. The only difference is that the iron from the water sometimes gets absorbed through the pores on the shell and can taint the entire white. Usually in more porous shells I see this happen. I have well water with high iron and see this occasionally.

 

[OneEggToRuleThemAll]

Do you have well water? Because iron in water can cause the white as well to turn green through the same reaction process. The only difference is that the iron from the water sometimes gets absorbed through the pores on the shell and can taint the entire white. Usually in more porous shells I see this happen. I have well water with high iron and see this occasionally.

We live in the city and are on city water. I wish I had a well!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Do you have well water? Because iron in water can cause the white as well to turn green through the same reaction process. The only difference is that the iron from the water sometimes gets absorbed through the pores on the shell and can taint the entire white. Usually in more porous shells I see this happen. I have well water with high iron and see this occasionally.

Again, why would this happen to only one egg when a whole batch is cooked in the same water? When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

Again, why would this happen to only one egg when a whole batch is cooked in the same water? When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras.

It’s like anything else when it comes to science even the smallest of differences can effect results even within the same group (I used to work in a research lab). Each egg has a different size/weight, different shell thickness, different porosity level, different micro nutrition levels and different heat distribution in the pan. This is not an uncommon reaction to happen with only one or two eggs in a batch with the rest perfectly normal. An egg with a slightly higher sulfur and iron content and a more porous shell will be more likely to experience this reaction than a less nutritionally dense egg with a thicker shell.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

It’s like anything else when it comes to science even the smallest of differences can affect results even within the same group (I used to work in a research lab). Each egg has a different size/weight, different shell thickness, different porosity level, different micro nutrition levels and different heat distribution in the pan. This is not an uncommon reaction to happen with only one or two eggs in a batch with the rest perfectly normal. An egg with a slightly higher sulfur and iron content and a more porous shell will be more likely to experience this reaction than a less nutritionally dense egg with a thicker shell.

Thank you.