No Bloom?

[gailburt]

My Muscovy duck, Maisie, lays big, beautiful eggs - or at least has for the two weeks I've had her. The last couple of days, we found just one egg from Hazel, our other Muscovy, but after the birds got up and outside, Maisie has gone back into the nest box, sometimes several times. Each time, by afternoon, she had produced her customary beauty. But I noticed that today's egg seems to have a shell that looks like it was washed - it has no bloom, I don't think. It feels different from the others (just the shell) and is whiter.

What does it mean? I'm new to raising chickens and ducks - I could use your expertise!
Thanks!

 

[jducour]

I am no expert, but I will also get a really smooth, clean egg every once in a while too. I just feel its softness for a while, and add it to the fridge with the rest of them. I never really thought about it as being unusual. I have 4 laying ducks, and three lay the same color, so I do not know if it is just one duck every week or so, or different ducks every month or so. Maybe you should eat that egg for breakfast that morning, and not store it, if you don't think it has a bloom. From what I understand though, the bloom isn't something you can see or feel.

 

[gailburt]

I think your suggestion is good - we're going to refrigerate that one, just to be safe. Today, she laid her egg in the afternoon, and it was perfect. I can see the bloom on it - it makes the eggs a slightly cream or off-white, and there are actually places where it was disturbed before it dried on a couple of them - it's like a claw scratched it away where she stepped on it or caught it on her foot on the way out.