Nasty Eggs! Help Plz

[MesMama]

I have a mixed aged flock and my bigs eggs have been nasty lately, like gross smelling and with some of them the white and yolk mix when you crack them into the pan and the stink too :/ The bigs are 3-4 years old (I bought them from a gal rehoming her birds) and so I'm wondering if this is an age thing or what the heck is going on?? Anyone experience anything like this? I'm thinking maybe it's culling time for the bigs? Only a couple even lay anymore

 

[azygous]

Smell is a very subjective thing. First, get a couple other people to do a sniff test and get an opinion on what the smell most resembles so we can try to pinpoint the likely source.

Many times, when a BYC member posts about the issue of smelly eggs, it's a result of the feed. It's either the feed itself or the manner in which the layers are processing it that produces the unpleasant odor.

Also, the type of table scraps could have a bearing on the smell. Age doesn't usually directly cause egg odor problems, but disease might. Are you observing any other symptoms in these layers? Are there egg quality issues other than odor? Are the layers in question behaving normally? Is their poop normal?

 

[MesMama]

Smell is a very subjective thing. First, get a couple other people to do a sniff test and get an opinion on what the smell most resembles so we can try to pinpoint the likely source.

Many times, when a BYC member posts about the issue of smelly eggs, it's a result of the feed. It's either the feed itself or the manner in which the layers are processing it that produces the unpleasant odor.

Also, the type of table scraps could have a bearing on the smell. Age doesn't usually directly cause egg odor problems, but disease might. Are you observing any other symptoms in these layers? Are there egg quality issues other than odor? Are the layers in question behaving normally? Is their poop normal?

I had my husband smell them too and he agreed, they had like the smell of pus? So bad. Those were the ones where the yolk and white mixed together and was runny. Then there was one egg where the yolk was shaped like a golf ball, I really thought it was going to explode before I could get it out of the pan. It was a yellowish green color, clearly rotten, and that one smelled a little like rotten eggs and something dead. We do collect daily, usually multiple times a day because we trying to help an eye on who is laying and who isn't.

Not seeing any sign of disease. Some are starting to molt. The egg quality of my bigs has always been weird, they don't have that thick part of the egg white that encapsulates the yolk (sorry that I don't know the correct term for that part of the egg) and so when you cook them the yolks break very easily and when I hard-boil them the yolks are always at the top of the egg with barely any white covering them. The shells tend to be fairly thin also. I wonder if the previous owner didn't feed calcium or something and that affected their internal development? Anyway, my littles eggs don't have that issue, they are formed perfectly so when I compare there's a stark difference.
Everyone behaves normally and poop is normal as far as I can tell, it's hard to monitor 100% because they are in a huge pasture, but just looking around inside the coop and outside it where they hang out everything looks normal. Also, they don't get much for table scraps, sometimes veggies

 

[azygous]

I am stumped. I surely sympathize with you. It has to be maddening not knowing what could be causing this. From your description, it's almost as if the eggs are spoiling inside your hens before they get laid. If you could monitor how often each hen lays an egg, you might find that these hens are taking much longer than the average 25 hours to develop and lay an egg. If the hen is retaining an egg inside for a week or more, perhaps it's possible for the egg to spoil before it even gets laid. Or perhaps there's an infection somewhere in the egg canal and it's getting into the egg as it passes.

I can only guess. Here's a site that deals in egg odors and the causes. Maybe you'll see something that fits your situation. http://www.thepoultrysite.com/publications/1/egg-quality-handbook/36/off-odours-and-flavours/

 

[MesMama]

I am stumped. I surely sympathize with you. It has to be maddening not knowing what could be causing this. From your description, it's almost as if the eggs are spoiling inside your hens before they get laid. If you could monitor how often each hen lays an egg, you might find that these hens are taking much longer than the average 25 hours to develop and lay an egg. If the hen is retaining an egg inside for a week or more, perhaps it's possible for the egg to spoil before it even gets laid. Or perhaps there's an infection somewhere in the egg canal and it's getting into the egg as it passes.

I can only guess. Here's a site that deals in egg odors and the causes. Maybe you'll see something that fits your situation. http://www.thepoultrysite.com/publications/1/egg-quality-handbook/36/off-odours-and-flavours/

Thank you so much! I will check out the link I didn't know that hens could retain an egg and that it could spoil inside of the hen? Wow :/ I hope I can get this figured out. I am concerned because I don't want this to happen to someone I give eggs to

 

[azygous]

Thank you so much! I will check out the link

I didn't know that hens could retain an egg and that it could spoil inside of the hen? Wow

I hope I can get this figured out. I am concerned because I don't want this to happen to someone I give eggs to

Don't take my guess as scientific fact, please! I don't know that it's possible for a hen to retain an egg, but I do know that egg yolks do get internally retained, causing infections. I think chickens are a species that could use some more research. They've been food for so long, I doubt anyone has cared enough about their inner workings to delve into the subject much.

 

[MesMama]

Don't take my guess as scientific fact, please! I don't know that it's possible for a hen to retain an egg, but I do know that egg yolks do get internally retained, causing infections. I think chickens are a species that could use some more research. They've been food for so long, I doubt anyone has cared enough about their inner workings to delve into the subject much.

You're right we could definitely gain from more research about them for sure!