Weird glob of slime on duck egg

[Finnie]

I've had chickens and turkeys for a long time now, so I thought I "knew" all about eggs. But I have a newbie duck question that I can't find an answer to.

My first duck has been laying for about a week now, and my second duck just started up a couple of days ago. They both like to lay in the mud, so I've been having to wash the eggs very thoroughly every morning. And it's been below freezing most of the nights, so a lot of the first duck's eggs were frozen solid and cracked open. So it didn't surprise me to find what I thought was egg white oozing out of one egg on the first morning that I got two. I didn't actually see a crack, but I just assumed, so I threw it away without really washing that one. (The other egg was fine. Not frozen or cracked.)

Then today, I was washing both eggs, and again, one of them seemed to have some egg white in a glob. I assumed it was also cracked, and my first thought was "Gee, this second duck must have thin shells to have broken both of her 1st eggs." But this time I washed the egg thoroughly, and checked it for cracks. I could find none. I even candled it and examined it minutely to find the crack, but the shell was fine.

So my question is, is it possible that this duck is putting a glob of slime on her eggs?

I mean, I know eggs have a cuticle, or bloom layer they get coated with, and they will be wet when they are first laid. And I know the mechanism can be a little off for a hen's first few eggs. But I've never had a chicken or turkey egg that had a glob of what looks and feels like egg white on it. Is this a common thing with ducks?

I'll be on the alert tomorrow to see if it happens a 3rd time, although I don't know if it's anything would show up in a photo. Thank you to anyone who can shed some light on why I'm getting slime on my duck eggs. (And it's not all over the egg, just a glob in one spot, near the pointed end, if that matters.)

 

[quackiemama]

I have no clue but I will be watching this thread to see what the experts have to say

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

Based on your description, barring any unusual symptoms accompanying the slime, it sounds like it might just be a normal duck excretion. This thread may be helpful:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/white-fluid-that-comes-out-of-ducks-vent.937213/. I had a duck that would "ooze" a little sticky, mostly clear liquid when she was running around me - she needed a boyfriend.

 

[chickens really]

New layers...

 

[Finnie]

Based on your description, barring any unusual symptoms accompanying the slime, it sounds like it might just be a normal duck excretion. This thread may be helpful:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/white-fluid-that-comes-out-of-ducks-vent.937213/. I had a duck that would "ooze" a little sticky, mostly clear liquid when she was running around me - she needed a boyfriend.

Hm. Ok. There's something that's different about ducks than chickens!

Today's eggs didn't show any sign of slime. I did add new bedding to their pen yesterday to try to keep the eggs cleaner. It worked some, but I noticed they covered the new bedding with poop in the area around their water dish, and that's where they chose to lay their eggs, so I still had to clean them.

I did think maybe being new layers, the cuticle material might have been applied as a glop instead of a thin layer. I'll keep this thread updated if I see this occur again. For now I will chalk it up to being new layers, as Chickens Really said.

Thank you everyone for your input.