KikiZobi
In the Brooder
Veruca, my ~1 yo Easter Egger is the lowest pecking order chicken in our 6 chicken flock. Recently, with the sunshine, egg laying has been taking off, and we've been getting 4-5 eggs/day. The whole flock is on a layer feed with oyster shells offered. No other hens are acting out of their norm. The chickens roam the fenced in yard. She appears healthy otherwise, and is acting like normal.
We noticed last week that her shells were particularly bumpy on the pointed end, and sometimes had so much calcium accumulation that the tiny bumps rubbed off. We thought nothing of it, knowing they are gobbling the oyster shells these days. HOWEVER, I cracked open one of her eggs this morning and I noticed the firm, round, clustered masses very integrated into the albumen-- they look nearly identical to the ones that would run off the outside of her shell. I'm wondering if these are parasite eggs? A sign of too much calcium? Something else?
I'm attaching a photo of the eggshells we've been seeing the past ~2 weeks, and then the egg I cracked this am from yesterday.
I found a similar sounding post on BYC from 2012, but the photos aren't clear and there was no result posted: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/egg-whites-have-bubbles-and-white-spots.652771/
We noticed last week that her shells were particularly bumpy on the pointed end, and sometimes had so much calcium accumulation that the tiny bumps rubbed off. We thought nothing of it, knowing they are gobbling the oyster shells these days. HOWEVER, I cracked open one of her eggs this morning and I noticed the firm, round, clustered masses very integrated into the albumen-- they look nearly identical to the ones that would run off the outside of her shell. I'm wondering if these are parasite eggs? A sign of too much calcium? Something else?
I'm attaching a photo of the eggshells we've been seeing the past ~2 weeks, and then the egg I cracked this am from yesterday.
I found a similar sounding post on BYC from 2012, but the photos aren't clear and there was no result posted: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/egg-whites-have-bubbles-and-white-spots.652771/
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