How to Get Turtle Eggs in Minecraft

Guide Java Bedrock

Quick answer: Breed two turtles with seagrass: one swims back to its home beach and lays 1-4 eggs in the sand. Guard the cluster from zombies (they hunt eggs to stomp them) and it hatches after cracking 3 times - almost always at night, usually within 4-5 nights.

What you need

2 turtles (beach biomes)
Seagrass (shears on the ocean floor)
A safe sand patch at the home beach
Fences and torches to protect the clutch
Silk Touch tool (to relocate eggs)

Step by step

Find two turtles on a beach and collect seagrass by shearing it off the ocean floor.
Feed seagrass to both turtles to put them in love mode and breed them.
Follow the pregnant turtle: it travels back to its home beach, however far that is, and digs in the sand for a few seconds.
It lays a cluster of 1-4 turtle eggs on the sand. Up to 4 eggs can share one block space.
Fence and light the area: zombies, husks, drowned, zombie villagers and zombified piglins actively seek out eggs to trample, and any mob that falls on an egg can break it. Sneak when you walk near the cluster.
Wait for the cracks: eggs only progress on sand-type blocks, almost all progress happens in a short late-night window, and the clutch hatches after 3 cracks - 4 to 5 nights on average.
To move eggs, mine them with a Silk Touch tool; they drop one at a time. Any other tool, a piston, or a mob landing on one destroys it with no drop, and moving a cracked egg resets its progress.

Java vs Bedrock

Breeding, laying and hatching work the same in Java and Bedrock. The zombie egg-hunting range is much larger in Java (47x7x47 blocks) than in Bedrock (11x5x11).

Versions: Turtles and their eggs arrived in 1.13 (Update Aquatic, 2018). Baby turtles drop a scute when they grow up - the ingredient for the turtle shell helmet.

Frequently asked questions

Why won't my turtle lay eggs?

Turtles only lay on their home beach - the beach where that turtle originally spawned or hatched. After breeding, the pregnant one walks home first. Follow it instead of trying to move it somewhere else.

How long do turtle eggs take to hatch?

On average 4 to 5 in-game nights, and 90% hatch within 7 nights. Eggs only crack on sand, red sand or suspicious sand, and only while a player is within 128 blocks.

How do I pick up a turtle egg?

Only with a Silk Touch tool, and eggs in a cluster break off one at a time. Any other tool, a piston, or something falling on the egg destroys it with no drop.