Abnormal lookilng eggs

chiknhurder

Songster
6 Years
Jan 8, 2014
306
31
103
Cass County Missouri
I have several French Copper Marans, both blues and blacks. What would cause her eggs to be dull, chalky, rough and dry looking instead of the normal dark, speckled, shiny eggs she normally lays. This has been over the past month or so, some being normal and a few like the description above. This week I've gotten 3 eggs from her with only one being normal. She's a French Blue Copper Marans hen that started laying about 5 months ago. The egg I got tonight also had a hole about the size of a pea in one end of it. It was in a nest box with 4 other eggs and only hers had a hole in it. All other hens eggs are normal.

 
I've got one French Maran, looks like your black hen, and I'm not 100% sure who is laying this brown egg I occasionally get, but I think it is her. All the other eggs are shiny as porcelain, but the brown one has the texture and sheen of sandpaper. I wondered about a deficiency but they all eat the same and she looks to me like the alpha hen, so she'll get the best of it. Interesting.
 
This is her normal egg on left compared to what I'm getting now except the most recent ones have been much lighter. She get's a 17% all organic, non-soy layer mix loaded with supplements, fresh water daily, greens and always has oyster shell. None of the other chickens eggs are suffering. She looks very healthy.

 
Looks like it missing the bloom....not sure just when the bloom gets put on the egg.
She could just have a hick up in her egg machine and it will work itself out......or she could have some kind of defect and that's the way it's gonna be from now on.
Only time will tell.
Wonder if it might have something to do with the change of the seasons and what is growing outside....do they free range?
This is her normal egg on left compared to what I'm getting now except the most recent ones have been much lighter. She get's a 17% all organic, non-soy layer mix loaded with supplements, fresh water daily, greens and always has oyster shell. None of the other chickens eggs are suffering. She looks very healthy.

 
My Marans cross frequently lays chalky shelled eggs. She's perfectly healthy, and the eggs are fine - I don't know why she does it, but I've stopped worrying about it. Apart from anything else, it helps me identify her eggs in the nest box! (Also, her eggs are very light - the same colour as my black sex link lays - that's what makes me think she's a cross, and not pure bred Marans, as she's never laid a dark brown egg in her life).
 
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The bloom is applied as the egg is laid. They do free-range in a very large pen because I've lost too many to dogs and hawks to leave them out without being supervised. I don't feel it's an issue now because there's not a whole lot to eat that they don't have in the pen, which is 100 feet by 40 feet. She is a purebred and not a hybrid mix.

I'm leaning toward it being too much calcium in their diet.
 
The bloom is applied as the egg is laid. They do free-range in a very large pen because I've lost too many to dogs and hawks to leave them out without being supervised. I don't feel it's an issue now because there's not a whole lot to eat that they don't have in the pen, which is 100 feet by 40 feet. She is a purebred and not a hybrid mix.

I'm leaning toward it being too much calcium in their diet.
How much calcium are you providing?
So maybe just the one bird is not processing the calcium properly?
Are they 'dull' eggs consistent with this one bird?

I'm really curious about what the deal is....tho the egg is kind of cool looking....Terra Cotta.
 

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