DEFORMED EGGS!!! Can anyone help?

[chickenman101]

i have a leghorn hen who has been laying deformed eggs for a while now. they are really misshaped and sometimes have a hole in them. she seems to be healthy, she eats and drinks well and plays with the others. does anyone have any ideas what it could be? any help is appreciated!!

 

[KattyKillFish]

are you giving her extra calcium like oyster shell? what type of feed are you giving them?

 

[Southernbelle]

Could you take a picture and post it? Sometimes survivors of Infectious Bronchitis have severely wrinkled eggs. Are her eggs soft shelled or hard?

 

[chickenman101]

her eggs are hard although she did lay a soft shell egg about 2months ago. i do mix oyster shells in with their feed and even throw some out in their run. i feed them scratch and cracked corn along with 16% protein. i cant think of the brand, but i get it from tractor supply i think its puritan's pride

 

[chickenman101]

anyone?

 

[caralouise1974]

Infectious Bronchitis seems the most likely cause, absolutely. She'll probably have suffered some damage to her reprductive tract during a bout of IB, which will mean she'll always lay funny eggs. It isn't something to be worried about though, in terms of her health, although do be watchful for eggbinding if she starts laying a lot of soft shells - they are much harder for the poor thing to pass than eggs with hard shells.

Have any of your other hens suffered with any symptoms?

 

[chickenman101]

thanks for the info. all my other hens are laying good and i havent seen any syptoms. what are the syptoms of IB?

 

[caralouise1974]

IB is usually characterised by respiratory symptoms, and is commonly believed to be the most infectious disease of poultry known. For this reason, perhaps IB is not the cause in your case, as your other girls are fine and you haven't mentioned any wheezing or sneezing... however... there is a strain of IB which only affects the reproductive tract and would therefore only affect egg production.

The eggs are usually wrinkled, misshapen or soft shelled, and have characteristically runny whites (which is a classic symptom of IB) usually for six weeks or so. Egg production can also drop dramatically. Even after recovery (it is very rarely fatal unless complicated by other infections such as e coli or mycoplasma) egg production and quality may always be reduced.

See here for more info on egg shell defects and their causes http://www.thepoultrysite.com/publications/1/optimum-egg-quality-a-practical-approach/13/gross-cracks

You may yet still be dealing with a simple case of calcium deficiency though. Try adding cod liver oil to the feed (breaking open a supplement capsule a day and squirting it into the feed is fine), as it can help hens who have trouble assimilating calcium to absorb it more efficiently.

 

[KattyKillFish]

Quote:
thank you for posting this! really lets us know for future reference. that's why i like BYC so much, you pick up all kinds of info on caring for your chickens.

 

[caralouise1974]

No worries - glad to share what knowledge I've picked up so far!

That link to The Poultry Site is very useful indeed actually - I've referred to it lots of times...