New Onset - Egg with Small Jagged Hole, No Color and Soft Shell

[Rob and Sheila]

3 pet ISA Browns born Sep 2017 and started laying in Jan 2018. Consistently give 1 egg each daily. However, twice now we have seen an egg with a jagged home (see jpg). The one pictured also is badly discolored (normally brown) with yellow streaks over a white shell. The shell is very soft (had to tear it versus break it). Egg inside was fine. There was a "scab" over the hole that washed off on both of the eggs. We feed them pre-mixed layer pellets from SouthernStates and leave calcium and grit out daily for their optional eating. My wife and I are very worried (overly so?) about this. We love our girls (Victoria, Elizabeth and Kate) dearly and want they to remain as happy and healthy as they can be. Am I making too big a deal about this? Might there be something I shoud be watching for? How do you find a vet who actually knows about chickens here in the Northern Virginia area? Any infomation will be greatly appreciated.

 

[rebrascora]

The yellow appears to be egg yolk (would you agree?) so I would guess that another soft shelled egg in the same nest got broken (probably accidentally) and eaten by them (fair game once they are broken) and some of the yolk got on this egg. The scab you describe over the hole may have been a crusty calcium deposit. It sometimes happens, especially with thin shelled eggs.
Sometimes they can release two ripe yolks from the ovary at the same time as oppose to 23 hrs apart and the shell gland only has enough calcium to coat one, so the second one is very thin shelled or shell less. Sometimes the two yolks travel together and are combined in one shell but sometimes they develop as separate eggs and only one gets a shell and brown coating. If the yellow yolk material was on the egg when it was laid then that suggests she has had an egg break inside her and that could be cause for concern as it can harbour infection. Was the nesting material sticky with egg material at all? Was there just this egg in the nest or where there others and did they have yellow staining on them?
Most people are pretty happy to get double yolked eggs but this can be a negative aspect to the same reproductive glitch that causes them.
It also could be that her body is just not processing calcium as it should or she has a defective shell gland, but there is more to shell quality than just simply calcium.

Has she laid normal eggs with good quality shells in between these occurrences?
What is the % protein in their feed? Do you feed any other feeds or treats? Scratch or corn or table scraps. Do they free range. Some plants can inhibit the uptake of calcium. Spinach is supposedly one of them but my chucks have no shell problems and get plenty of spinach. Sometimes a batch of feed is not mixed thoroughly or for some reason don't get the correct % of nutrients they should, so it might be worth trying a different feed and cut out any treats and free ranging until the problem is resolved..... I know it will make you a very unpopular chicken Dad, but sometimes they need tough love.

 

[Rob and Sheila]

rebrascora, Thank you for your very thorough and thoughtful reply. This soft shelled egg was found alone in the coop sandbox right next to the nesting boxes with sticky materiel on it (washed off before the pictures were taken). After reading your response I think the yellow streaks/materiel may have been from another egg yoke that was somehow developed without a shell along with/outside of this one. She has laid perfect eggs between the two eggs with holes. This one frightened us. I will take your advice and cut out the snacks (cracked corn and sometimes watermelon) and see what happens. We keep the 3 girls in a run (3'x8') and connected coop area (2'x6') with raised hen house over the 2'x6' coop on our back deck. They seem to enjoy it and consistently lay 1 egg each daily. Thank you again for your very kind response. Ive not been called a chicken daddy by anyone except my wife until now! Bless You!