Issue with a “yolkie like sticky fluid” on eggs!!

[Messipaw]

Issue with a “yolkie like sticky fluid” on eggs!! Help what’s wrong? Hi I have six laying hens-2 BR’s, 3 RIR’s and 1 EE. All were born January 2012. (going to be 3 yrs. old). They are going thru a molt and my EE is broody. In the last two weeks three times I found the eggs in the nest box covered with a “yolkie like sticky fluid”. I collect the eggs as soon as they are laid and I see no evidence of egg eating. What ever it is washes off the egg. It makes the nest box messy. It has no odor and is sticky to the touch! I hope its not yolk. Any other suggestions? What could be the problem?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Sounds like a broken egg to me from the description.

 

[Farmer Viola]

Agreed, sounds like you might have an egg eater who destroyed the evidence. She must be identified and separated quickly, because she can easily teach this behavior to the other hens.
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/10/egg-eating-chickens-how-to-break-habit.html

 

[Messipaw]

Is it really possible that one of my hens could eat the entire egg and not get any on them. Do you think it's an egg eater even though it's so random?

 

[aart]

It could be that you have a thin shelled layer, can happen to older layers and the egg is getting broken in the nest by being stepped on?

A broken egg is fair game for eating, won't start and egg eating habit, and yes they will eat everything they can reach including the shell without messing their feathers.