For most of my life I have been around chickens and their eggs. Therefore I am no stranger to odd eggs; the double yolkers, the “wrinkled” shells, the eggs with no yolks, the shell-less eggs… But today Clara found a duck egg that was a first for me.
As she handed it over, she told me that it was bad and we should get rid of it. At first I thought it was just a shell-less egg. Which, I must say, never fail to give me the hibijibies when I’m not expecting them. Just imagine. Reaching into a darkened nest box to pull out an egg, expecting a hard, smooth, warm, shape that fits just perfectly into your hand – and touching instead a cold, squishy, leathery feeling, blob. Uuughh, it makes me shudder just to think of it. After I recover from my split second of panic, when I think I’ve actually found a small alien in my chicken coop, I think they are fascinating – all wiggle and squish! Fascinating or horrifying they are nothing more than a regular egg that didn’t “cook” long enough to get a shell. I see these shell-less eggs most often in the young, the old and the severely startled birds.
In any case -this duck egg went beyond shell-less, it was shell-less with a tail.
The tail is a tube, about three inches long, that is open on the end and leaking out a bit of egg white.
Weird.
Fascinating.
I took pictures
I’m so glad I have a blog so I can justify(?) my pictures of weird eggs.
It makes me feel less crazy.
Behind the Willows 
Obviously it’s the egg of a diving duck and that’s the snorkel.
I’m so glad we have a vet in the family to inform us when we are missing the obvious answers when it comes to our animals! 🙂
Kind of creepy, but fascinating. Looks like it’s going to start wiggling.
I had the same thought… creepy After sitting on the counter for a few days it shriveled to about half it’s size and turned hard. Creepier!
How interesting… thanks for sharing 🙂
Thanks for visiting, I love all the chicken pictures you’ve posted! Next time we have chicks I’m definitely pulling out the flowers for a photo shoot, looks like fun!
Flowers are good fun I am trying to find other items for the chicks photo shoots 🙂
That is really cool! I know exactly what you are talking about when touching one in a nesting box, I got your hibijibies just thinking about them..
Oh good, I like it when others share my hibijibies about things, then it must not be just me!
YEP….that’s a strange one. I’m glad you have this blog to post weird and wonderful things too! 🙂
I’m glad you like my weird and wonderful things!
🙂 I do! I do!
Ouch! Here in the big city we thought all eggs came with a nice, clean shell and a date stamped on it 😀
Not quite! 🙂
We just got one of these from our duck today! Tail was 2.75 inches, very similar to yours. I can send you a photo if you tell me a link!
Crazy! What kind of ducks do you have and were you able to find out anything about why they lay eggs like that?