egg found on ground is discolored

[Nonnie195]

I found these eggs on the ground about a week apart. I am pretty sure I know who is laying them, and she lays in the nesting box most of the time. I figure that the discoloration has something to do with the ground being cold. The light area also feels rough. What are your thoughts and do you think that they are safe to eat?

 

[Kelsie2290]

They call those white Banded Eggs.... I get them periodically also, usually find them in the litter under the roosts in the morning also, so assume something delayed the laying of the first egg that day or the day before.
http://www.alltech.com/sites/default/files/alltech-egg-shell-quality-poster.pdf
White Banded Eggs
These eggs are the result of two eggs
coming in contact with each other in
the shell gland pouch. At this point,
normal calcification is interrupted and
the first egg retained in the pouch will
have an extra layer of calcium - seen
as the white band marking.
Causes:
•Stress
•Changes in Lighting.
•Disease

 

[Nonnie195]

Kelsie,
That is a very interesting post. My hens only started laying about a month ago. I have artificial light on them. I also have one egg that has a very light star-like crack and a couple that have come out long. There also has been a couple of soft shelled eggs that have been dropped from a hen while she was perched. None of the causes on the chart are consistent with my type of eggs. What could cause stress for them? I have 9 hens and 1 rooster. They have about 100 sq ft inside and their outside area is too large to figure right now. I am feeding them layer feed from Tractor Supply. They have oyster shell and grit available all of the time. I usually get about 6-7 eggs a day, but yesterday I got eight. (One hasn't laid in about 2 weeks as she is sitting on eggs to hatch.)

 

[Kelsie2290]

With young birds, you are hopefully just dealing with them not being mature yet and still getting the egg laying system in gear. With stress, I think a lot of the time it is things that we would not really consider "stress" but that a hen would. Especially if you are talking young layers ... link & abstract of a paper below, they list things like not getting in the nest box, neighboring chickens are upset, and I mean, figure out what would be disturbances to a chicken? It may just be that the hen is not up to speed yet and hasn't got the timing cycle right for egg laying, if the egg is "due" to be laid during the day, it is fine since the hen can the pre laying routine and lay the egg, but at night the hen isn't moving and the egg kind of stalls out for awhile until she "has" to lay it.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3742268
Abstract
Concern regarding the proportion of brown eggs being laid with abnormal egg shells led to an investigation of the relationship between disturbance or stress and egg shell appearance and quality. The abnormalities fell into two main classes: misshapen or bulging eggs and eggs coated with a superficial layer of amorphous calcium, variously termed dusted, white banded, chalky or pink eggs. Translocation of hens from pens to cages resulted in a decrease in egg production and an increase in the proportion of abnormal eggs over the succeeding 18 d. Disturbance to flocks on deep litter resulted in an increase in the proportion of eggs laid with abnormal shells on the following day, not only in the flocks directly affected but also in an adjacent flock. Exclusion from their nests of birds accustomed to laying in nest boxes resulted in disturbed prelaying behaviour, retention of eggs in the shell gland and an increased proportion of coated eggs. Administration of 0.1, 0.25 or 1.0 mg of adrenaline subcutaneously resulted in the retention of eggs currently in the hens' shell glands and in an increased proportion of eggs with abnormal egg shells being laid during the following 10 d. A dose response effect was apparent. There was evidence that the nature of the particular abnormality produced was dependent on the stage of egg formation at which the disturbance was imposed and, if retention followed, upon the length of time the egg was retained. Disturbances when eggs were only lightly calcified tended to result in misshapen eggs, while those occurring when oviposition was imminent tended to result in coated eggs. Dusted or pink eggs followed moderate retention whereas white banded eggs were seen after prolonged retention. These observations may provide a basis for a non-invasive method of assessing stress in laying hens as well as helping to account for hitherto inexplicable occurrences of declining egg shell quality.

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/publi...ndbook/16/thinshelled-eggs-and-shellless-eggs
With shell-less eggs that seems to be really common with young layers, and again they just haven't gotten the reproductive system together...stress again is a one in a long list of possible causes, when they egg just goes through the system too fast and doesn't get a proper shell put on.

 

[Nonnie195]

Thanks so much on the info. I am an avid reader when it comes to educating myself on things. Any other sites that you know of would be greatly appreciated. What are your thoughts on sand vs deep liter?

 

[Kelsie2290]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/444759/got-sand-you-should Long thread on sand, pretty much covers every angle Sand/gravel in the runs seems to be the easiest and cleanest thing to do if you can especially so far as drainage goes. Part of it will depend on your particular situation, climate, how much rain do you get, ho w cold does it get etc... And of course what is available in your area, if you live where you can just go get sand for free, you can't hardly beat it. If you have to buy it, depends on the size of your run/ coop, what else is available etc.
I use sand/gravel in the runs and a form of deep litter in the coops, we get fairly cold here and like litter better in the coops in the cold weather, also I personally find litter a lot easier to change out than sand. Our main coop has a concrete floor and smalls raised wooden, so don't have to worry about drainage.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Some of the links/ sites I have found helpful, usually it goes to a page in the site not the main page, like The Poultry Site above, which is a really good overall site....
http://kippenjungle.nl/kruising.html
https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/medicine-chart
http://ag.ansc.purdue.edu/poultry/publication/commegg/
http://www.avianweb.com/deadinshell.html
http://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/li...size-and-your-small-flock-of-laying-hens.html
http://feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKPoultryPage.html#Chickens
http://www.sagehenfarmlodi.com/chooks/chooks.html
http://www.isapoultry.com/en/Products/Isa/Isa Brown.aspx
http://web.uconn.edu/poultry/NE-127/NewFiles/light.html
http://www.sp.uconn.edu/~mdarre/poultrypages/light_inset.html
http://www2.ca.uky.edu/poultryprofi.../Chapter3_Anatomy_and_Physiology/Chapter3.pdf
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/217/moulting-a-natural-process
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/tristate_organic/poultry_2007/Light Management.pdf
http://www.poultryhub.org/
https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry
http://www.sialis.org/raisingmealworms.htm
http://msucares.com/poultry/diseases/solutions.html
http://extension.psu.edu/animals/po...reproductive-system-and-fertilization/the-hen

 

[Nonnie195]

Thanks for the input. I tried sand in the coop and, while it definately seems to be cleaner on my sweeties feet, the dust was horrible. I don't have asthma or any other lung/breathing problems, but I had to buy some dust masks just to clean. After a couple of months my lungs still felt tight, so I bought a microfiber mask. It definatley helped, but I told my husband, "if it is bothering me so much, it can't be good for their little lungs." So after a couple of hours of shoveling sand, with my mask on, the coop was finally clean and ready for pine shavings. My husband bought what the co-op had, which ended up being very small. It gets on every article of clothing I wear out there. It is even in the pockets of my coat. I guess I traded one problem for another, but at least I feel as though the shavings won't cause health issues.

As time permits, I will look into the sites you attached. Has any of your hens had chicks?

 

[chickenitza]

I received this egg this morning. I bought/rescued some hens (approx 1.5-2 years old) yesterday and found this one on the ground. They still don't know what the nesting box is (and I'm guessing it will take some time) I purchased them during their molt, which is stressful in sure. I attribute the egg color to nutritional deficit and the stressful process of "molting".

 

[aart]

I received this egg this morning. I bought/rescued some hens (approx 1.5-2 years old) yesterday and found this one on the ground. They still don't know what the nesting box is (and I'm guessing it will take some time) I purchased them during their molt, which is stressful in sure. I attribute the egg color to nutritional deficit and the stressful process of "molting".

If you just purchased them yesterday, they are probably not molting, as they usually don't lay when molting.
It's probably just a glitch in the 'spray booth' rather than a nutrition issue.....stress from moving.
That egg was 'in process' when you picked them up, you may not get any more eggs for awhile due to moving to a new place.