A Curious Case of Cracked Quail Egg - Anecdote, Not Emergency

[ArcticCuddlefish]

So we've got a couple young coturnix hens in for foot care after a male got nasty with their toes. All three of the overnight patients need some more tender and painful care and are currently laying, so for the main cleanup we did it in the evening after they'd all laid. Don't need to crack a shell in there D: Well, next day, to my spouse's immediate concern, one of the younger girls (only laying about a week now) dropped what appeared to be a very damaged egg.

This picture doesn't even do it justice - the thing looks like it got stepped on without exploding, but it's as solid as any other!

Best we can tell, she had been the first to lay that day and was a few hours into cooking up a new egg when she had her minor surgery. We've gotten pretty good at holding firmly but gently for a 2-person procedure, but she fought with us anyway, and we think that fledgling egg-start cracked but didn't rupture. Since it was early in the development of the shell, it just kept right on developing through the night and next day and was plenty tough enough to lay safely. It's fascinating that her brown egg pigment flowed through these cracks and highlighted them so clearly!

We're glad she's okay, and she's also healing very well and will get to rejoin the other hens before too long, but I thought this was interesting and worth sharing

 

[sourland]

That's actually pretty neat looking. My gut instinct is that it is coincidental to the treatment rather than caused by it.