Egg abnormalities question

[my beautiful girls]

I have infectious bronchitis virus in my flock. I had one of the girls blood tested to confirm. They are 6 weeks post infection.

Only 4 out of 6 were affected. My 2 buff orphingtons have no symptoms or egg problems.

All were laying normal eggs prior to the virus.

My black australorp started laying eggs with extra calcium on the shells, then yesterday she was in distress and laid a white banded egg in middle of the run. This morning she laid egg yolk and albumen with no shell in nesting box.

My question is how can you have a banded egg, then just a yolk come out the next day?

Aren't banded eggs two shells touching in the shell gland?

Here are some pictures.

 

[Eggcessive]

My flock had IB virus years ago. I saw most of those egg shell defects afterward for years. In the following article you will see that many defective egg shell problems can be possible with IB effects, stress, and other causes:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/common-egg-quality-problems.65923/

Since chickens with IB virus may be carriers for 5 months to a year, I got rid of it by waiting a year after my hens recovered to either hatch or buy new baby chicks.

 

[my beautiful girls]

My flock had IB virus years ago. I saw most of those egg shell defects afterward for years. In the following article you will see that many defective egg shell problems can be possible with IB effects, stress, and other causes:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/common-egg-quality-problems.65923/

Since chickens with IB virus may be carriers for 5 months to a year, I got rid of it by waiting a year after my hens recovered to either hatch or buy new baby chicks.

@Eggcessive
after she laid the white banded egg, the next day she laid a shell less egg, just yolk and albumen, zero shell. she sat in nesting box this morning and didnt lay anything. acting like she is in distress again this evening. since her eggs were calcium coated excessively right before these banded and shell less eggs, do you think she needs a calcium supplement? I'm waiting to see what this next one looks like, she should be laying soon, most likely in the run, not the nesting box. thank you. extra calcium needed or is this IBV's fault?

well....she laid another white banded egg and just before some albumen/yolk came out of her vent so i am guessing she will lay the shell less egg tomorrow. guess I answered my own question.

 

[Jazzin]

I recently started having a similar problem with one of my hens. She has no history of disease and is barely a year old, and has consistently laid perfect large eggs nearly every day since she started. However, a little over a week ago, she appeared to be uncomfortable and passed a white banded egg, with a shell-less egg following barely two hours after that. She didn't lay an egg the next day(I don't blame her!) and I hoped that it would be a one-time issue but the same thing happened the next day and has continued to happen since then. Once she has laid her strange eggs she behaves perfectly normally and has lots of energy, but I am still concerned about her health. She eats layer feed, has enough space, and is given time to free-range for a good chunk of the afternoon/evening. She is a total sweetheart and I would love to be able to fix this problem. Thank you so much for solutions!

 

[my beautiful girls]

I recently started having a similar problem with one of my hens. She has no history of disease and is barely a year old, and has consistently laid perfect large eggs nearly every day since she started. However, a little over a week ago, she appeared to be uncomfortable and passed a white banded egg, with a shell-less egg following barely two hours after that. She didn't lay an egg the next day(I don't blame her!) and I hoped that it would be a one-time issue but the same thing happened the next day and has continued to happen since then. Once she has laid her strange eggs she behaves perfectly normally and has lots of energy, but I am still concerned about her health. She eats layer feed, has enough space, and is given time to free-range for a good chunk of the afternoon/evening. She is a total sweetheart and I would love to be able to fix this problem. Thank you so much for solutions!

@Jazzin Elsie, my girl, that is laying the banded eggs/shell less eggs has infectious bronchitis virus. she hasnt been tested, but her flockmate was a she was positive, so Elsie has it too. In my experience with her. it is not a calicum issue. This will happen for a week, she acts the same way as yours, she is in pain and then passes the banded egg, not in the nesting box, usually in the run, then a few hours later lays shell less egg and then is totally fine. There's nothing I know of to help her. I always watch her and keep others away and make sure none of the egg material gets stuck and it has not so far, thank goodness. Stressful on everyone. After the week of bad eggs, usually consists of 3-4 incidences, she was good then for 3 weeks with normal eggs, then last week she laid 3 banded eggs and now she is back to normal again. long story short, with Elsie, she fixes it on her own. sorry I could not of been more help. This is all the egg industry fault for making our girls lay to many eggs.

 

[Jazzin]

Yes.. too many large eggs cannot be good for their bodies. Her normal eggs are about 75g and quite round, and she lays them every day. I'm going to start my girl on some Nutri-Drench as a vitamin D supplement because I do not think that she has a shortage of calcium, and I'll update you on if it helps. Thanks for letting me know about the IB virus, I don't believe that she has it because she only lives alongside one other chicken that doesn't have any disease history aside from a swollen eye that happened over a year ago and hasn't returned. I'll keep an eye out for any symptoms of respiratory illness and just keep observing!

 

[my beautiful girls]

Yes.. too many large eggs cannot be good for their bodies. Her normal eggs are about 75g and quite round, and she lays them every day. I'm going to start my girl on some Nutri-Drench as a vitamin D supplement because I do not think that she has a shortage of calcium, and I'll update you on if it helps. Thanks for letting me know about the IB virus, I don't believe that she has it because she only lives alongside one other chicken that doesn't have any disease history aside from a swollen eye that happened over a year ago and hasn't returned. I'll keep an eye out for any symptoms of respiratory illness and just keep observing!

is your hen a black australorp? mine is and she lays large kind of round eggs as well. Elsie is 15 months old and lays 6 eggs a week normally. I have no idea how my flock got IB virus other than from wild birds. I practice biosecurity and they never leave my property. very unfortunate for us. Good luck with your girl.

 

[Jazzin]

This is Olive! As far as I know, she isn't a Black Australorp, however she looks exactly like one. I got her as a roommate to my other chicken, who was a lone black Silkie. I wasn't wanting to buy chicks of any specific breed because you usually have to purchase them in larger amounts and I also did not have a brooder to care for them at the time. The only store that I could find that had older pullets(2-4 months) that were kept in healthy conditions was selling this chook under the title of "Blue Rock," which isn't quite right because Olive has black feathers. However, the brood of Blue Rocks that I got her from also contained lavender birds and blue birds, not just black ones, which makes me think that the birds were just poorly bred and that she does in fact contain the "Rock" ancestry. However, I'm not sure and I might just have a Black Australorp.

 

[Jazzin]

I also should note that Blue Rocks are a hybrid between Black Andalusians and Barred Rocks, and one that I would consider a production hybrid judging by Olive's output.

The last hen that I had was a Golden Comet that started having these same problems, but she was about 3 when it started happening frequently. However because the hen was a breed that was commonly known to have these issues and because she was at the end of a regular Golden Comet lifespan I didn't consider that it could have been caused by illness or a vitamin shortage, and was instead just the characteristic reproductive problems of the breed.