Egg problem? anybody?????????????

[joebwe25]

Okay. Our Chicken is laying these really weird eggs.
This is been happening for some time now.
The eggs are lumpy, speckly and rough, like coarse sand paper. Is it what we're feeding her?> Poultry/ layer pellets? They mostly eat bird seed that dropped out of my ground feeder. Should she be getting more calcium?
PLEASE HELP!!!!! Thanks

 

[joebwe25]

Anybody?

 

[ivan3]

They mostly eat bird seed? Do they tend to eat more of that than the layer? Can you post a pic of some eggs (there are some that can't be categorized - but there are some that can be diagnostic)?

ED: for clarity

 

[jenjscott]

yes, a picture could help. If she is eating any significant amount of feed other than layer pellets, she probably needs some oyster shell or other calcium supplement.

 

[CovenantCreek]

I wouldn't worry about it. I've been getting eggs like that from one or two my older girls (they're a little over 1 yr). Mine are all free-range with layer pellets (was mash until about a week ago) and lots of calcium and other supplements. I attribute it more to age than anything else.

 

[Barnyard Dawg]

One of our EE chickens lay green eggs they have what people joke, warts on them, they just have calcium build up?

 

[ivan3]

"Warts", yes. This is from, at the time, a nearly three year old BSL hen (then magnified).

I wanted to know the precise mechanism by which these formations were created. Now, there is considerable research ongoing in the field of biomimetics (`growing' bone/semiconductor substrates/etc.) so, I figured, this `controlled fabrication of a composite bioceramic' would probably be on the books. However, to this date: "by a process not well understood'. How does Calcium Carbonate precipitate out just so in the hen's oviduct?

They are sometimes associated with disease/age.

Best info to date:

http://captura.uchile.cl/dspace/bitstream/2250/2350/1/Arias_JL.pdf

(go to the store and ask if they sell composite bioceramics by the dozen - they'll send the DHS after you, I'd bet)