My 2nd egg today not cracked but smeared with yolk

Cheep

Songster
9 Years
Jul 17, 2010
147
2
101
Sebastopol, CA
Seems like it was laid by someone who didn't understand. I found it in their run, & it was bright yellow, like a real Easter egg, dyed yellow (sloppily). I picked it up & of course it was yolk. The eggshell is NOT cracked.
I now have my Sherlock Holmes hat on, & wonder, do I have an egg-eater? I see no sign of an egg with a cracked shell.
Or, (best case scenario) could she somehow have smeared the yolk while hatching it? I know that doesn't seem reasonable.

I finally washed it after I was sure it was yolk, and now I have a 2nd question: What color is it? Initially, I thought it was white, from one of my 2 white leghorns, though they have showed no signs of being at POL, that i've noticed.
I'm a NEWBIE, & they were all born March 9, making them 20 weeks old today, and yesterday I got a perfect, small brown egg - MY FIRST, so of course I'm prowling around invading their privacy as often as I am able, but I do have a life (such as it is) away from my hens.

TIA, every or anyone.
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My leghorn laid one like that- bright yellow like an easter egg. It was her second or third one laid. I have no idea why it happened, but I suspect that she hasn't gotten the hang of the whole laying thing. Two days later I found one without a shell- could have been hers or the other layer, my red star. Then the leghorn laid an egg that looked slightly pink. Strange.

Both were hatched 3/15 of this year, so yours are a little older than my hens. Those 2 are the only ones laying so far.
 
Oh thank you so much; preparing for "worst case scenario" I was just reading about how to break that bad habit, & I am now so relieved.
The egg does look slightly creamy, to the point I was wondering if it could have been from one of my EEs - but my 1st thought was, "white egg".
I know how hard it is to judge color by photo, esp when flash is involved, - Especially, when I can't even tell, myself
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All new layers have a few issues to work out in their plumbing. Weird eggs are not unusual to new layers, or even to older hens after their first molt. It's not normal, but not unexpected, either.

Leghorns lay white eggs, by the way. And at 20 weeks they are past ready to be laying.

Good luck with them.
 
When that happens to me I suspect an egg without a shell broke and a hen cleared the evidence by eating the skin. Beisdes keeping a pail of oystershells out, when I get a soft egg, I offer them some crushed eggshell.
A pink tinge could be from a ruptured capillary in the egg canal. Sometimes such ruptures could result with a blood clot in the egg itself. If eggs are for selling, they should be candelled.
 
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