I know this is extremely bizarre but in the past 2 weeks, one of our hens (not sure which one) is producing an egg that smells bad from the moment it's laid.
At first, I thought maybe either she or the nest had had a broken egg in it previously which was causing the smell. But that is not the case.
We have even started collecting eggs 2 and 3 times aday. However, we keep getting one egg that smells rotten.
We tried washing the eggs when we brought them inside but then we'd notice a bad smell every once in awhile while we were cooking them.
Then I started breaking the eggs individually. And sure enough, ever so often, one of them smells rotten even when we are gathering them practically as soon as they are laid; collecting immediately, washing & refrigerating immediately, too.
I have a pretty sensitive nose. From the process of elimination that we've gone through (outside of figuring out which hen is the culprit) we have pretty much deducted that the smell is originating from inside the egg and working its way out to or through the shell. When the egg is cracked outside of smell, there is nothing obviously wrong with the egg and none of them show signs of being fertile; no blood spot or embryo speck.
In 20 years, we have never come across this situation. Has anyone else? What is going on?
At first, I thought maybe either she or the nest had had a broken egg in it previously which was causing the smell. But that is not the case.
We have even started collecting eggs 2 and 3 times aday. However, we keep getting one egg that smells rotten.
We tried washing the eggs when we brought them inside but then we'd notice a bad smell every once in awhile while we were cooking them.
Then I started breaking the eggs individually. And sure enough, ever so often, one of them smells rotten even when we are gathering them practically as soon as they are laid; collecting immediately, washing & refrigerating immediately, too.
I have a pretty sensitive nose. From the process of elimination that we've gone through (outside of figuring out which hen is the culprit) we have pretty much deducted that the smell is originating from inside the egg and working its way out to or through the shell. When the egg is cracked outside of smell, there is nothing obviously wrong with the egg and none of them show signs of being fertile; no blood spot or embryo speck.
In 20 years, we have never come across this situation. Has anyone else? What is going on?