Duck eggs are generally light in color, these birds will lay eggs that are white, light blue, light green, or even brown, but duck eggs that are darker are uncommon
If your bird’s eggs start off light, then start to turn black, then you’d be right to be worried. This article explores why your duck eggs may be turning black.
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Duck eggs turning black:
Some duck eggs will naturally come out looking a bit darker than expected, the Cayuga duck is a blackish-green feathered bird that lays ash-colored eggs that are grey in color.
However, if your duck’s eggs change from a white or another light color to a dark color you’d be right to be concerned. Here is why your duck egg may be turning black:
Bruising:
Ducklings need to break out of their shells from the inside when hatching, this isn’t always a quick process, it can take several hours.
When a duckling decides to start to hatch through the egg the bird uses its egg tooth, an egg tooth is a hard, sharp piece on the duckling’s bill that helps the bird break through the egg.
If the bird uses this egg tooth to try to get through the egg, but the egg tooth doesn’t pip the egg, then the egg can turn quite dark in the area that the bird tried to pip.
This bruising can look like a black patch on the egg.
What to do:
Check the inside of the egg to see if the bird is actually alive in the egg and that the bruise is close to where the duck’s bill is. Candling the bird’s egg will help you see inside.
Candling involves shining a light, either coming from a candle, coming from a flashlight, or light coming from an egg candler, while in a dark room to see inside
First check that the egg is still viable, a viable egg will have a network of red veins in it. You may also be able to see a beating heart in an egg that is viable.
Also, check to see where the dark patch is compared to the duckling’s bill, if the dark patch and the duckling’s bill match up then the bird more than likely bruised the inside of the egg.
A rotting egg:
If your duck’s egg is changing, if the egg is getting darker, turning black, or even starting to smell bad then the egg is more than likely rotten.
Eggs that are going off may not always smell rotten but if the egg changes to a darker color, even black, then you should be quite worried.
The eggs may have become rotten during the incubation process or the eggs may have been bad by the time they went into the incubator, none the less, these eggs will not hatch ducklings once the incubation process is over.
What to do:
If the eggs don’t smell like they are rotten, but the egg still looks black, then you would need to candle the egg to see if it is viable or not.
The steps to candling an egg that you think is rotten are the same steps that you would need to take when candling an egg that you think is bruised.
An egg that is clear means that the egg is not viable and that there is no duckling growing in the egg.
If you realize that an egg is indeed rotting then you’d need to throw that egg out, if you don’t then you run the risk of the egg exploding in the incubator.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other duck related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Duckling Vomiting, Duck Manure Vs Chicken Manure, Do Geese Get Cold, Why Do Ducks Like Ice Water?, Why Is My Duck Throwing Up Water?, Does Duck Poop Kill Grass?, How To Keep Ducks Quiet At Night