I have 21 hens and 1 rooster that are over a year old now. This winter I had one hen die from the cold and 1 died from weekday I suspect was sour crop or impacted crop. She had the symptoms but I was unable to save her. She died 2 months ago, approximately.
Not long after, so maybe within the last 6 weeks, I noticed one of the eggs I was getting had pretty watery whites. It was consistently one pale brown egg. I have also been setting a few sporadic eggs showing rough deposits, like little grains, on the shells. Maybe one a day, or every other day when it started, but now I'm seeing a little more.
Yesterday I got one egg that was supposed to be light brown that was really, really pale. It looked bad. Today I got one egg that is light brown and strangely distorted. One end of it is gnarly looking and bumpy, and the coloring on the whole egg is off.
As for the chickens, I'm not seeing any obvious signs of illness. When asked, my teenager said she thought one of the hens might have made a cough or sneezy sound once or twice in the last couple weeks, but nothing alarming or regular. She said it was a white leghorn, so it couldn't be the hen who is laying these funky eggs because those are pale brown.
The problem is that I have eggs from these hens incubating righty now, half way through the process.
From what I've read it looks like if it is IB I can't really do anything about it, is that right? What do I do about these new chicks? How do I treat the hens right now and protect the new chicks that well be joining soon? I don't know how many of the hens are infected but only a couple are displaying egg problems.
Pear help with advice on what I should do. Can I still sell the good looking eggs for eating purposes or are they considered bad now?
Not long after, so maybe within the last 6 weeks, I noticed one of the eggs I was getting had pretty watery whites. It was consistently one pale brown egg. I have also been setting a few sporadic eggs showing rough deposits, like little grains, on the shells. Maybe one a day, or every other day when it started, but now I'm seeing a little more.
Yesterday I got one egg that was supposed to be light brown that was really, really pale. It looked bad. Today I got one egg that is light brown and strangely distorted. One end of it is gnarly looking and bumpy, and the coloring on the whole egg is off.
As for the chickens, I'm not seeing any obvious signs of illness. When asked, my teenager said she thought one of the hens might have made a cough or sneezy sound once or twice in the last couple weeks, but nothing alarming or regular. She said it was a white leghorn, so it couldn't be the hen who is laying these funky eggs because those are pale brown.
The problem is that I have eggs from these hens incubating righty now, half way through the process.
From what I've read it looks like if it is IB I can't really do anything about it, is that right? What do I do about these new chicks? How do I treat the hens right now and protect the new chicks that well be joining soon? I don't know how many of the hens are infected but only a couple are displaying egg problems.
Pear help with advice on what I should do. Can I still sell the good looking eggs for eating purposes or are they considered bad now?