An egg yolk mystery???

[gritsar]

Every once in awhile, once a week or less, I notice a hen with a tiny bit of yolk on her face, comb or wattles.
Each time I notice this I check all my nestboxes and the coop itself for signs of a broken or eaten egg and can't find any, not a single speck.
My egg count hasn't gone down at all, so it doesn't worry me too much. It's more of a curiosity thing on my part.
DH says it may happen when a egg is laid outside and the hens clean it up; though I've never found an egg outside the coop.
I wonder if they've found something in their travels that closely resembles egg yolk when it dries.
Any ideas?

 

[WingingIt]

Maybe one of those egg mistakes that look like clear shelled eggs or intestines instead of an egg? I say that only because I found one a couple of days ago and when I tried to pick it up to get rid of it the darn thing fell apart.........so if they even jiggled it they would have broken it and then could eat it. Just a guess.

 

[FortWorthChicks]

yep.. sounds like someone has been laying eggs without shells. I found the skin of one in the coop today the hens had eaten the egg though.

 

[GraceAK]

Mine did that too. i was scared, because she is my favorite chicken and if she became an egg eater I would have to eat her!

I found a soft shell egg with a hole pecked in it. She seems to be a non-egg eater.

 

[kelidei]

every so often I have a similar experience. I think one hen lays a "weak" or shell less egg or perhaps one cracks (because for some reason they all like the same nest boxes) and then it gets eaten--- I rarely find the remnants just the tell tale yolk on the heads of the guilty--- they seem to eat the egg shell and all.

 

[gritsar]

I'm hoping that it's just an isolated thing; maybe a soft shell. They've never shown any interest in the eggs laid in the nestboxes before.