Pullet Laying Eggs With A Pip In The End (Picture Attatched)

[BarredR]

I have a Barred Rock pullet about 40-45 weeks old laying these eggs the last two days. I feed them high protein layers pellets as well as free range them and on occasions crush egg shells for extra calcium. All my other pullets eggs are like normal could it be from low calcium?

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I don't see a hole, are you talking about the brown speckle?

They look fine to me.

 

[chickenlver2013]

I have a Barred Rock pullet about 40-45 weeks old laying these eggs the last two days. I feed them high protein layers pellets as well as free range them and on occasions crush egg shells for extra calcium. All my other pullets eggs are like normal could it be from low calcium?

They're just calcium spots.

 

[BarredR]

Hard to tell from the picture but in person they are little thin spots almost a hole. You can almost see in the egg.

 

[chickkrzi]

Looks almost like you have a transparent spot on you eggs. Almost as if it didn't have the brown coloring on the tip? I get one of those once an a while. The spot it smooth like I said no brown coloring.

 

[BarredR]

Yeah sounds about right it does have a little dimple but smooth and looks transparent.

 

[Hooligans7]

Barred R, I would switch their feed and see what happens. Your hens may have the beginnings of poor calcium absorption because of too much protein. I don't know if anyone has studied the effects of excess protein consumption in chickens, but in humans, chronic consumption of large amounts of protein (longer than 4 months in humans) leads to hypercalciuria, which is characterized by impaired absorption of calcium, which is then excreted. If this problem applies to hens, then the calcium used for shell formation would have to come out of the hens' bones, since the ingested dietary calcium goes straight through. Left untreated, hypercalciuria can lead to thinning of the bones, increased risk of sudden bone fractures, and osteoporosis.

Commercial layer pellets have adequate calcium for shell formation and usually 16% protein, which has been determined to be adequate as well.

Again, I don't know if any of this applies to chickens, but if you switch feed and the thin spots go away, then you'll have your answer. If you do, one way or another, please share your results with BYC.

 

[BarredR]

Thanks for your thoughts.