Which duck laid the black eggs?!

[Bert2368]

This mornings baker's dozen of duck eggs- We have Khaki Campbells, Cayuga black and Swedish blue ducks, along with one KC/Cayuga cross we hatched last year.

I had seen an occasional egg with a Grey "wash" or speckles last season, but this is extreme.

 

[BoomChickaPop]

WOW was it rolled in mud or did you find it in dirt?
It might just be stained.
Possibly from the cayuga they lay gray eggs.

BCP

 

[Bert2368]

Nope, it was laid on dead grass out in our orchard with no muddy area close by, and was not there for more than 12 hours before being collected.

The Grey is a surface coating and can be scratched off. It does not wash off with water. Kind of like the exterior coloring of my brown chicken eggs, which can be scraped off in handling or if washed with a scratchy pot scrubber.

I have plenty of experience with mud and muck- on eggs, chickens, ducks, trucks, myself... This was not mud.

 

[Bert2368]

Oh gee. 5 minutes with google, and now I know it was probably a Cayuga!

And maybe some of them will lay GREEN EGGS?! COOL!!! I have accidentally raised a flock of Easter Egger ducks!

I wonder how my customers are going to like them. I just ate the one in the picture for lunch, scrambled up with some vegetables and venison steak, it was very tasty.

Here is a pic of the eggs that my cayugas have laid. I got rid of the ones that layed the green eggs and kept all of the ones that layed gray to black eggs. Its pretty hard to find ones that lay black eggs. I have one hen that lays the real black egg, one year her eggs lightened up alot as she layed, then one year they didnt lighten up at all, they stayed pretty dark.