Hi,
I've been consulting this forum for some time now but can't find any info on this particular problem. Hence, my first post.
We have a silver laced Polish who up until the past week or two, has been laying a perfect white egg every other day or so since she matured in February. Suddenly her eggs have a weird smell even when broken immediately after she laid it. Its not a rotten smell, kind of hard to describe really - just off. They look normal otherwise, if not a bit cloudy sometimes. She is a bit smaller than my other chickens but not a bantam. She is at the bottom of the pecking order for sure, and not too bright compared to the others, but she doesn't get picked on too much. She has also been laying an occasional egg in the run lately but seems healthy otherwise. We have a large, clean coop with four nest boxes so she shouldn't have to fight for one.
We have three other chickens, whose eggs are just fine - a buff orpington, barred Plymouth Rock and a mystery breed who was supposed to be an EE but also lays brown eggs, They all live relatively harmoniously in the same coop, and are fed the same diet - organic layer pellet, organic scratch, some oyster shel, veggie scraps and whatever they can forage when allowed to free range in the back yard. I don't give them onions or garlic but I suppose they could find it in the compost pile if they really wanted to.
Has anyone else had this problem? Is she sick or has she just developing a liking for some strange plant or bug that the others don't eat? Should I keep her in the run for a while and see if this passes or does she need some kind of treatment? The only info I could find on this topic was that too much rapeseed or canola would cause a problem in brown egg layers - but the Polish is the only white egg layer I have! I appreciate any advice. Glad you guys are here - you have already been a big help with other issues!
I've been consulting this forum for some time now but can't find any info on this particular problem. Hence, my first post.
We have a silver laced Polish who up until the past week or two, has been laying a perfect white egg every other day or so since she matured in February. Suddenly her eggs have a weird smell even when broken immediately after she laid it. Its not a rotten smell, kind of hard to describe really - just off. They look normal otherwise, if not a bit cloudy sometimes. She is a bit smaller than my other chickens but not a bantam. She is at the bottom of the pecking order for sure, and not too bright compared to the others, but she doesn't get picked on too much. She has also been laying an occasional egg in the run lately but seems healthy otherwise. We have a large, clean coop with four nest boxes so she shouldn't have to fight for one.
We have three other chickens, whose eggs are just fine - a buff orpington, barred Plymouth Rock and a mystery breed who was supposed to be an EE but also lays brown eggs, They all live relatively harmoniously in the same coop, and are fed the same diet - organic layer pellet, organic scratch, some oyster shel, veggie scraps and whatever they can forage when allowed to free range in the back yard. I don't give them onions or garlic but I suppose they could find it in the compost pile if they really wanted to.
Has anyone else had this problem? Is she sick or has she just developing a liking for some strange plant or bug that the others don't eat? Should I keep her in the run for a while and see if this passes or does she need some kind of treatment? The only info I could find on this topic was that too much rapeseed or canola would cause a problem in brown egg layers - but the Polish is the only white egg layer I have! I appreciate any advice. Glad you guys are here - you have already been a big help with other issues!
