Soupy Eggs

[tropicaljo]

In the past week or so, we've gotten some eggs that were pure soup when they were cracked in the skillet. I crack the egg and everything falls out as if it were water. The yolks don't seem to have any sort of division from the whites... it's just runny as a river. At first I thought that it was because the egg was from a "found" nest cause my girls free range all day and I've found a couple of nests in the woods. I candled the eggs before deeming them edible and putting them in the fridge. But the last 2 eggs that poured from the shells were taken from under the hen right after she layed them, and it wasn't the same hen in both instances.

I'm wondering if the heat might be a factor in causing the eggs to look like soup when you crack them?

For over a year now we've been getting wonderful eggs from our girls. DH has been loving having a couple of fresh eggs for breakfast and in fact, has lost 65 lbs since he started having breakfast every morning instead of a cup of coffee on the run!

 

[tropicaljo]

Bump... really curious if there's something I should or shouldn't be doing to stop these soupy eggs.

 

[Eowyn2]

I thought I read recently that infectious bronchitis could cause egg whites to be runny. Maybe some sort of infection?

 

[tropicaljo]

Thank you for your reply! My chickens don't seem ill in any way, no 'coughing', no lethargy (outside of trying to beat the heat), eating and drinking well, poop looks as good as poop can look... just a couple of eggs lately that were soupy... and not just the whites... the yolks were like water as well. I've never seen an egg run across a pan like that and I sure wasn't gonna eat it. Daisy (my dog) said they were fine after I cooked it thru, but what does she know? She's a dog.

I'm hoping it's just one of the 9 million weird things chickens do on occasion.

 

[ChicKat]

Like the other poster, I've heard that a runny white can be caused by certain things....among them, if the chicken is exposed to an ammonia smell (as in the coop while they sleep)---- sometimes this happens with the deep litter method just before clean out time--- or the clean-daily method if rain or other factors have caused a number of days to be skipped. chickens are more sensitive to the ammonia smell that we are.....so a human wouldn't smell it, but it could affect the egg white and make it runny.

In your case---maybe it is just the extreme heat going on... Are there any other change factors? New type of feed for example, or vastly different treats---water melon rind that they wouldn't have gotten before when your eggs were normal....etc.

If none of those explanations seem to fit--- then I guess it would be a chicken oddity.

 

[Eowyn2]

I hope it's just one of those weird things too.

I found an interesting file about things that can affect egg quality, maybe it will help you:

http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/library/lvstk2/ep127.pdf

Looks like heat can definitely play a role.