"Hens eggs are MOOSHY when boiled - PROBLEM??"

[allmypeeps]

Eggs shells are always fine.

She is 2 years old and never misses a day of work,

Our 3 yr old hen never missed a day either! I told hr she could take the weekends off...but she refused

The Organic feed is called Nature's Best from Kreamer Feed (out of PA). I live in Maine.
The protien is 16.0 PCT

The only thing I can find where I am is blue seal. I have to special order this organic stuff from one place and was getting crap about it because it is 'more expensive and not worth them ordering otherwise'. So I now get it at Paris Farmer's Union.

I had never heard of other brands until I came on this site. I will have to go down and see if they carry any of this/special order it if needed. Or I may have to try tractor supply co...they are new around here so have no idea what they carry.

My hens do eat worms (where there are any to be found, and love shredded motzerella- tiny bit) I will look into other protien sources, what about cottage cheese?

 

[allmypeeps]

Quote:
Birds often are replaced every other year. Forced moults are done in between to get them to continue lay, but after year 2 they are in such poor health due to their filthy stressfull living conditions and amonia levels burning their eyes/lungs that they are made into dog chow or chicken pot pies. This goes for batterycage and 'cage free'.

chickens can live to be 8 to 15 years old depending on breed and environmental factors and they will lay till the day they die. Just not as steadily.

My neighbor had a pair of ducks- they were 24 years old. The only reason they died then was a fox got them!

 

[kingmt]

I was hopping that there would be a answer to this.

 

[annek]

Don't know if this could be what is going on, it talks about egg whites being runny when fried and how it is a genetic defect. Have you tried frying these eggs to see what the white would do? Anyway, here is the link-don't know if it would help.

http://www.poultryindustrycouncil.ca/factsheets/fs_100.pdf

 

[annek]

Quote:
Kelly, Take a look at this write up on EDS (egg drop syndrome), it sure does sound like maybe you might have picked up a hen that has this virus. One of the first things noticed is a loss of color on pigmented eggs, then thin shelled eggs often with a sand paper like finish, sometimes watery albumen, smaller egg size. Affected birds remain otherwise healthy, transient diarrhea. It also says that brown egg layers seem to have their eggs affected more with the appearance of the virus coming around the peak laying time in the life of the hen. Outbreaks often last 4-10 weeks. Fertilized eggs can get the virus and can be infected by contaminated egg trays.

Anyway, it was an interesting article even though it is very technical. See page 227 on...


http://books.google.com/books?id=oB...X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8#PPA230,M1

A much less detailed and less technical explanation of EDS is at this web site:

http://www.shagbarkbantams.com/page15.htm

Anyway, long and short of it if it is EDS is that it is not life threatening for the chicken and there is no health risk to people if that is the problem. If you are a breeder, you will need to be careful about transmitting.

Let us know if it disappears after a few weeks.

 

[kellybelly]

Hi Annek,
thanks so much for taking the time to write this info and send links. Although it was quite techinical as you say, it was very useful and interesting to read and there are indeed lots of similarities.

I have one major concern about it if this is what we have going on. We are not breeders, we only have 4 girls as family pets but one of our younger girls ( "Baby bird" ) went broody and was extremely determined.

We decided to give her 2 fertilised eggs ( from a respected breeder). We left her sitting on it in the main hen house until one day, Miss Henny Penny ( the girl with the problem eggs) went all strange and started trying to get into the nest box with our broody girl. She was acting quite weird. I moved her back outside but when I came out later to check, she had gone back in and either purposely or accidentally by being so pushy, broke one of the eggs.

We then moved the broody bird to a separate little house/nesting box and run so she wouldnt be bothered with her one egg.

The articles you sent seem to mention the concern over newly hatched babies getting this virus and not making through the first week. As the broody bird and her egg were originally in the house with the possibly infected bird for a few days, do you know if we have a problem regarding the safety/health of the egg?

I will let you know if the problem goes away after awhile. I think it has been about 8 weeks now so maybe all will settle down in a couple more weeks.

THANK YOU!

 

[annek]

Kelly, other than the inconvenience of having the thin egg shells it isn't a major concern for the home flocks from what I have read. It just decreases the egg output while the virus is active. If your flock is being exposed obviously I would not ever sell fertilized eggs for someone to raise without informing them. Since all of your hens live together when the virus is active which is now if that is indeed what the hen has then it is shedding the virus in the excrement now and your other hens are exposed. The study they did says that it affects brown egg layers more than white.

The mortality rate it refers to are chicks that are orally infected with the virus. If you read down it says that if it gets it from the egg it does not change the mortality rates. Hopefully your chick will be healthy and happy and the fecal exposure will be decreased when it is born. There is a vaccination for it but I haven't looked into anything about that and don't know that you would even be interested in doing it for the chick.

It should be interesting to know if your hen starts laying normally within the next few weeks. I will subscribe to this topic and let me know if this is really what your problem is.

Anne

 

[motherbear]

I don't know if this will help, but I've noticed the same thing with our 1 year old cuckoo marans hen when she started laying again after a broody spell. Hormones?? Shells are still very dark, smooth and thick - just weird whites when boiled - they remind me of boiled eggs that have been left out too long at easter. They are just fine when fried.

 

[allmypeeps]

Yes! I noticed that too (that they are fine when fried).

Perhaps its just the way some birds are. We can't all be perfect I guess, lol.

e

 

[kellybelly]

Hi Anne,
I will indeed let you know how the outcome is. She still lays eggs everyday and always has so that part hasnt been affected. It seems to be the quality of the egg shell and also, that when boiled, the whites remain mushy. I have been doing some "research" because I have wondered if its her age which could cause these problems. I havent found any definitive info but alot of the information I found says that these things could be due to age. Maybe she is a very old girl? I will give her awhile longer and see if the shell "defects" change back to normal.
Be back soon!
kelly
p.s. Thank you!