Chicken ate snakes - now eggs taste different?!

[Lmilla]

Hi, guys!!!

I've had a couple very disappointing mornings with nasty tasting eggs. Not nasty like they'd gone bad - but gross tasting. Not the normal yumminess I expect from my girls. The second day I narrowed it down to one of my brown eggs, and I've been trying to figure out what one of my chickens would've gotten into that the others wouldn't have eaten...

When I was putting in my garden last weekend, one of my girls (Una, our black laced Wyandotte) got 2 garden snakes all to herself! They were small (under a foot long) - and I have no idea what they were. Either garder snakes or copperheads - or something else I've never seen around... Those are the only 2 I know are around here. And Una just grabbed them and ran - the other girls had no clue what was happening.

So here are my questions... Would a snake change the flavor of a hen's egg so much it's inedible? And would it happen right away? (I think I'm eating eggs that were laid right around the time I put my garden in, so they could've been laid the next day or two)... Would it make a difference if it was a copperhead or a garder snake? I felt weird after eating them, but I don't know if that was real or just in my head.

 

[SunHwaKwon]

My guess is that is probably not the first time they've eaten a snake or mouse or anything else unappealing, it's that this time you witnessed it and it's in your head.

 

[Lmilla]

I know it's not the first time... But it's the first time my eggs have tasted funky. That's definitely not in my head. What else could cause that, then?

 

[Lazy Farmer]

Are you collecting your eggs daily and refrigerating them?

 

[Music2myears]

Friends fed their chickens prawn shells & eggs tasted like prawns for a while ... so it is possible.

 

[SunHwaKwon]

Farmer Connie's implication is in line with my thoughts. Also, if you keep your eggs on the counter and it's been very warm in your home...

I've given my chickens shrimp and crawdads with no change in taste. They don't taste like ticks or crickets, either (I assume) lol

 

[Lmilla]

I do collect my eggs daily, and while the eggs sit on my counter until they're cleaned and refrigerated, it's only a max of 3-4 days that they're on the counter - unwashed and in an air conditioned house. I've had this routine for several years, and it was my understanding eggs could sit unwashed for weeks unrefrigerated...

I'm not eating the brown eggs for now, and will probably toss the older brown ones (still under a week old), and then I'll start tasting them again. I thought if eating onions could make eggs taste oniony, then maybe eating 2 possibly poisonous snakes would do something, too...