"Foul" Tasting Eggs

We have a chicken problem. We have 5 silkies (1 of which is our rooster "Shelby") + 6 other hens.
Most of our eggs have a strong flavour which are inedible so most are thrown out which defeats the purpose of having the chickens.
They are fed on grain from the local produce store and have fresh water each day and they're all healthy.
They also free range during the day and they do eat the grass from the area where our reclaimed water releases.
We think this may be the problem so we have relocated them to a penned area well away from the reclaimed water run off so hopefully the eggs will start to taste better soon.
Does anyone have any other thoughts on this matter that may help us out with our problem because it seems like a waste at the moment because we throw out most of our eggs!
Thanks in advance.

Welcome to BYC! What do the eggs taste like? And do you think they have any chance of disease? And how old are they?

What is the grain and what/where is the 'reclaimed water' from?

More details needed.

How long have you had these chickens, have the eggs always tasted too 'strong'?
Home grown eggs can taste stronger than grocery eggs.

Do they look normal when you break them open to cook?
How do you gather and store the eggs?
What is your climate?

Grain is regular poultry food with corn and the like. Chickens are between 6mths (raised from 3weeks)and 2 years (inherited). All the chickens appear to be healthy. We live in SE Queensland, Australia. We have been collecting eggs morning and night for about 3 months and about 70% of the time they are no good. The eggs all look normal when craked and don't smell like they are off and they are stored in cartons in the refrigerator and the flavour is not just stronger than the store brought they have distinct taste which is yuk! The reclaimed water that goes on some of our grassed areas is from our septic treatment system but they no longer have access to the grass that is watered by it so hopefully that will help. Thanks again.

Do they smell sulfurous, as in the classic "rotten egg smell"?

My hunch, like you've motioned, is it is probably from your septic run off system. I don't know much about those. But I did live in a city once that had fancy enclosed septic "digesters". They didn't smell at all...usually. Occasionally, the microbiology in one of the digesters would get out of balance and then it would produce a classic sewer smell. I'm guessing you don't have a fancy setup like that for your septic.

What chickens eat can affect their egg flavor. For example, too much flax seed or fish meal in their diet can produce fishy flavored eggs.

I find it quite hard to believe it is the run off from the septic tank. My chickens free range in my stable yard and scavenge in the filthiest run off from my muck heap (think stinking dark brown putrid liquid) and sometimes they even drink the stuff even though there is clean rainwater available next to it, as well as scratching through the muck heap itself.... and my eggs don't taste any different.
Unless it is the chemicals in the cleaning products (bleach/detergents etc) which go into the human waste system which are coming through in the eggs.
Have you had other people taste them to see what they think? Just wondering if you have a very sensitive/discerning palette? My brother thinks my eggs taste much better than shop bought eggs, but I can't tell the difference.
Until you figure out and solve what the problem is, scramble or boil the eggs and feed them back to the hens. At least that way you are not wasting them and hens won't care if they taste a bit strange.

Just as an after thought, they aren't on medicated feed are they?

rebrascora said:

Unless it is the chemicals in the cleaning products (bleach/detergents etc) which go into the human waste system which are coming through in the eggs.
Have you had other people taste them to see what they think? Just wondering if you have a very sensitive/discerning palette? My brother thinks my eggs taste much better than shop bought eggs, but I can't tell the difference.

Click to expand...

It's also possibly psychosomatic - expectation and perception of surroundings are a huge part of taste. Taste is hugely mental.

Thanks to all who offered advice. Isolating the chickens in their own separate penned run area seems to have fixed the problem. Chickens have been in their new home for a week now and not had access to the grass watered by treated septic water....so Yay!
Now just have to convince the kids that eggs are goooood again!