Eggnomalies

[feather13]

Hi friends! Our hens are all molting and I've been seeing some odd egg shapes and textures. One of the Sex Link's eggs today had weird stripes on it that looked like she was carving some kind of hidden message to me. The Easter Eggers eggs all have some weird bubbling stuff on the ends. And the Rhode Island Red has laid eggs with the most fragile shells the last two days (I crushed them both times when I picked them up).

The hens are all eating good quality layer crumble from our local feed store and eating a mash of hardboiled eggs with shell, chia seeds, hemp seeds, blueberries, kale, and quinoa (honestly, they eat better than I do) every two to three days. And they get black soldier fly larvae every once in a while (usually to lure them back into the coop if they've been free ranging).

What do you think? Have you seen these kinds of eggs before? Should we eat them ? Thanks for your time!

 

[rosemarythyme]

Hens entering molt (and later on, coming back into lay) can have egg quality issues, so this isn't unexpected.

All the ones you have pictured should be ok to eat, but as a precaution I'd crack them into a cup individually before using. Just as the outside can be glitchy at this time, you may find an increase in quality issues inside as well.

The one hen with the super fragile shells, you can probably try supplementing her with additional calcium until she either stops laying for the year, or the shell quality improves enough that it doesn't just shatter, mainly to ensure that she can get the eggs out of her system without issue. You can either use calcium citrate tablets (like the ones for humans), or isolate her for a private breakfast. 2-3x a week serve a small bowl (like 1 Tbsp is fine) of wet or fermented feed with oyster shell mixed in. If she does not like chunks of oyster shell, crush it up or use the powdery remnants from bottom of the bag. Should only take her minutes to eat and after that she's free to go.

 

[feather13]

@rosemarythyme Thanks so much for your detailed response! I really appreciate it. I'm going to make 100% sure that it's the RIR laying those fragile eggs and mix up the calcium and fermented feed for her. This is the first year (in ten years of keeping chickens) that the molt has been so rough for all the ladies.

 

[TX Chick Noob]

What is the protein percentage in your feed? If it is only 16% you may want to switch to an all flock or grower feed with 18-20% protein to help them recover faster/easier from molting. Make sure to have oyster shell out at all times if you do this since they will need the free choice calcium with those feeds. Or I use Nutrena Hearty Hen which is a layer feed with 18% protein.