Nits on chicken egg?

[DuaneC]

I have an Ameraucana that has just recently started laying eggs. Two days ago, in fact. On the eggs (blue-green in color), I have found small clumps of little round balls (also blue-green in color) in one or more places on the egg.

They look like they could be nits except that their color exactly matches the egg. There are 3 or more 'layers' and they're bunched up together. They can easily be scraped off with a fingernail and don't leave a residue.

I might also point out that of the other 12 laying hens, none have produced an egg with this phenomenon.

Also, I have not yet had a chance to check the chicken directly for lice, but we have not had an 'outbreak' or any indication of lice on any of the other chickens.

I'll post a picture as soon as I can, but thought maybe somebody has seen something like this before. A cursory search of the internet provided little.

Thanks!

 

[TriciaHowe]

It's just a bit of extra shell on the egg. I get this from time to time, especially with my new layers. Nothing to be worried about

 

[DuaneC]

Are you sure? It seems to be too round, etc. I've had eggs before that looked like another piece of shell stuck to it, but it looks more like a shard. Here is a picture:

 

[roxyblue]

One of my amerucanas had the same problem. It started with just a few and eventually ended up with a huge cluster on the top of her eggs every day. It was VERY strange. She deid but I'm not sure if her death was caused by her deformation in her egg production system. Likely it is just a little bit of calcium build up on the shell. I don't think that it is something to worry about.
-Roxy

 

[DuaneC]

For the record, I feed my hens on Purina Layena and generally don't supplement other than table scraps and occasionally recycle egg shells. We only use less than 10% of our eggs, so the proportion of egg shells to hens is lower than it would be if you were giving them back the shell for every egg they laid.

I found a couple of other similar threads after googling. Neither seemed to have a definitive explanation, except that in the 2nd thread they stated that the "deposits" disintegrated in vinegar - ruling out parasites.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=307208

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=32521&p=1

- I'm not sure about the "excess Vitamin D" theory. When I scrape them off, there are no holes left in the shell. It merely seems like the tiny balls are just glued to the shell and each other.

I suppose the consensus is that they are harmless, but fall under the phenomenon category...