Yesterday when I went out to collect the eggs I found two unusual eggs. One rather large duck egg and one without a shell. See the warmly coloured brownish egg below? It is only a membrane, no egg shell. I suspect it may be from our banner duck - Mummy duck. She is very long-lived and has successfully raised many flocks for us. I've told her story a few times on this blog. She acquired a limp a few years back. In fact, it was touch and go there for awhile and the kids wanted me to take her to the vet. I held off, hoping she would just heal, which she did, but now she limps. She's always had a special place in my heart but I was a bit worried to see an egg without a shell. Ah, ageing. It comes to all of us. Unless of course, it is caused by the other end of the spectrum - young duck, not quite managing to make the shell before finishing the laying process. Not sure I have any answers here. I haven't found many eggs without shells in my years of duck herding. The membrane is reasonably strong.
Check out the size of the other special egg, though! Mandarin added for context.
I was curious to see just how big it really was....130g. If you aren't convinced that duck eggs are better than hen eggs, take a look at that!
The egg without a shell is pretty big as well - 80g without a shell.
And here's the modestly sized duck egg - 75g. They are impressive my girls. I now have 6 ducks in the backyard. We used to keep 4 ducks (3 ladies and a drake) and 2 hens. When our hens passed on we let the duck flock grow to what will be a maximum for a suburban garden - 6 ducks. Our neighbours must be saints, or else the way our land falls (we are on a slightly sloping block) means that no one's bedroom is close to these noisy creatures. They are not like hens, who like to go to bed at night, these girls can be up at all hours wandering around chatting, arguing, disputing, bossing and generally partying. Ask me how I know? (I know that's meant to be a rhetorical question..hah) but I've had some trouble sleeping lately and have been up at all hours and boy do they carry on. Anyway, in the 10 years we've lived here and kept ducks, our neighbours have never complained. I am grateful, as I do love my ducks. And check out those eggs!
