Please help! Who laid this egg?? I don't have white egg layers...

ChickenShepherd_6116

Songster
Premium Feather Member
Oct 24, 2023
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Post Falls ID
So this thread might be kind of long because I have a lot to explain...

To start off, I found this egg in the nest box two days ago (no eggs have been laid since - only Easter Egger eggs). The odd thing is, I don't know who laid it, or why it looks like this. To give you some idea of my flock, I have 3 laying hens, and 6 pullets; my 3 laying hens are: 1 ISA Brown (5yo), 1 Easter Egger (2yo), and 1 Buff Orpington (3yo); my 2mo pullets are: Olive Egger, Lavender Orpington, Dark Brahma, Black Australorp, Cuckoo Maran, and Blue Laced Gold Wyandotte. One of each. They all eat Starter Crumbles with free choice Oyster Shells. Now here is the hard part... I have 2 hens who have been a little off with their laying - My ISA Brown and my Buff Orpington, my Easter Egger lays great eggs.

Here is the story with my Buff Orpington: About a month or so ago, two of my hens escaped the run and got killed by my dog. My Buff Orpington was safely in the run when this happened, but idk if she saw it and got traumatized because right after that, she started eating her eggs, then, about 2 weeks ago, she stopped laying altogether. Now my guess is that she just started laying again, and that's why the egg isn't normal. Maybe she just has to get into the hang of laying again...? But then why haven't I gotten any eggs from her since then?

As for my ISA Brown, she lays soft shelled eggs, has been for a couple months now. I assume that's just her age, though. Maybe she is starting to lay normal-ish eggs? Not much else to say about her... I go into the nesting box, and every morning I have to clean out dirty shavings from her broken eggs. :barnie

My guess is its the Buff Orpington who laid this egg, but why is it white? The White - Yolk ratio is normal, and the yolk is super dark, just like my Easter Egger's. Idk if you can tell from the pictures, but the egg shell has little speckles on it. The shell wasn't super hard, but it also wasn't super frail, idk if that helps lol. Also, is this safe to feed back to my girls? I'm not going to eat it because I don't like plain eggs, and I'm not baking anything soon enough to use it.

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To show just how dark the yolk is, this is a picture of it next to a store bought egg:
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Why would she lay an egg that color? She has been laying great up till now. I'm pretty sure I got a normal egg from her yesterday.
They just do sometimes. I've gotten this cold out of my Easter eggers. Color can change, but generally the shape stays similar in a hens eggs. The yolk color is generally from diet.
 

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