Turtle Egg

A turtle egg (in Java Edition) or sea turtle egg (in Bedrock Edition) is a block containing 1–4 eggs that each hatch into a baby turtle.

Obtaining[]

Breaking[]

A turtle egg drops as an item when mined using any tool^[1] with the Silk Touch enchantment. If broken without the enchantment, pushed by a piston, or broken by a player or mob falling onto it, the egg breaks without dropping anything.

When mining a cluster of more than one turtle eggs, the eggs break one at a time, instead of all at once like other clustered blocks such as sea pickles or candles.

Breaking a cracked turtle egg with a Silk Touch tool resets the growth stage when the egg is placed on a different block.

Post-generation[]

After two turtles are bred with seagrass, one of them travels back to its home beach, digs in the sand, and lays an egg block with 1–4 eggs after several seconds. See hatching mechanics below.

Trampling[]

Turtle eggs can be trampled by living entities (players, mobs, livestock, etc.) that fall onto or stand on top of them. Eggs in a multi-egg block are trampled one at a time until no eggs remain. End crystals can also break turtle eggs if they explode.

Eggs can be trampled by a crouch-walking (or "sneaking") player. Though eggs cannot be trampled by non-living entities like arrows, they can be trampled by armor stands. When a falling block such as an anvil or sand block is dropped onto an egg, the falling block is dropped and turned into an item leaving the egg unharmed.

Zombies and their variants (husks, drowned, zombie villager and zombified piglins) seek out and trample turtle eggs that have 2 blocks of air above them unless /gamerule mobGriefing is false. The range of detection is a 47×7×47‌^{[JE only]} or 11×5×11‌^{[BE only]} box centered on the block the mob is standing on. When a player in Survival or Adventure Game-mode is nearby (also includes iron golems and villagers), the zombie prefers to attack the player rather than trampling the turtle egg.

Other than zombies and their variants, mobs do not seek out turtle eggs to trample them, but still may break them by accident. An entity falling onto an egg has a ¹⁄₃ chance of trampling the egg and an entity standing on top of an egg has a ¹⁄₁₀₀ chance per tick of trampling the egg.

Turtles cannot break turtle eggs, even when they are on top of them.

Usage[]

Placement[]

Up to 4 turtle eggs can be placed in one block and slowly hatch into turtles. Though turtle eggs can be placed on any block, they only hatch on sand blocks. When adding more eggs to an existing block, they will retain their hatching progress.

Turtle eggs do not require a supporting block below and unlike dragon eggs are not affected by gravity. Eggs are also capable of supporting lanterns hanging under them.^[2]

Hatching[]

Turtle eggs hatch on sand and red sand. Eggs crack over time and hatch after cracking three times. Eggs hatch significantly faster at nighttime.

Turtle eggs have a very low chance of cracking during random ticks during the day (1/500 chance). However, they are guaranteed to crack during random ticks between 21600 and 22550 ticks in-game time (3:36 am and 4:33 am). This is a roughly 48-second window for the player. About 95% of eggs crack or hatch during this night-time window. On average, an egg hatches in 4-5 nights. 90% of eggs hatch in 7 nights or less.^[3]

When a multi-egg block hatches, all eggs hatch simultaneously.

Eggs do not progress toward hatching if the player is not within 128 blocks of horizontal distance of the egg. This is due to the egg's chunk not receiving random ticks.

Sounds[]

Generic[]

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Unique[]

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Block states[]

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

History[]

Java Edition
1.13		18w07a			Added turtle eggs.
					Turtle eggs currently render three-dimensional in the inventory.
		18w11a			Added drowned, which like zombies and their variants, seek out and trample turtle eggs.
		18w19a			Turtle eggs now display as a 2D sprite in the inventory.
		18w22a			If the player is inside the hitbox of one turtle egg, and another is attempted to be placed, the placement fails.
					Turtle eggs now make placement sounds when the amount in a stack is increased.
					More turtle eggs than normal can be placed in one stack by aiming at adjacent blocks.
1.14		19w03c			Turtle egg clusters now use correct cullface arguments, with the exception of four turtle eggs, which still renders a redundant face.
		19w08a			The model of turtle eggs has been changed, as to not have a stretched texture.[4]
1.16		Pre-release 3			Turtle eggs now hatch on red sand.[5]
1.20 (Experimental)		23w07a			Turtle eggs now hatch on suspicious sand.
Bedrock Edition
1.5.0		beta 1.5.0.4			Added sea turtle eggs.
1.11.0		beta 1.11.0.1			Ravagers can now destroy turtle eggs in their path.
1.13.0		beta 1.13.0.9			Turtle eggs now display as a 2D sprite in the inventory.
Legacy Console Edition
TU69		1.76	Patch 38		Added sea turtle eggs.

Issues[]

Issues relating to "Turtle Egg" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia[]

• Turtle eggs cannot be trampled by bats, however, they can be trampled by other flying mobs.
• Babies always hatch facing south.
• The item forms of turtle eggs and diamonds have the same shape.

Gallery[]

Renders[]

In-game[]

• 

  First image of turtle eggs.

• 

  Second image of turtle eggs.

• 

  A zombie stomping on turtle eggs.

• 

  The 3 stages a turtle egg goes through before it hatches: plain, slightly cracked, and very cracked.

• 

  The different numbers of turtle eggs that can fit in one block.

• 

  Turtle eggs on a small island.

• 

  The detection range of hostile mobs toward turtle eggs

• 

  Graph of simulation results showing how long it takes turtle eggs to hatch

Notes[]

References[]