The Egg Anomalies Thread

[TheGreatEscapees]

Hey Everyone! I thought it would be cool if there was a thread where we could share our strange eggs, and here it is! Meet Ombre:

She is a Production Blue I got from TSC. Along with her, I got three RIRs and two other Production Blues who happen to be black(they had dark blue down as chicks). This week, she laid her first two eggs:

I'm very confused! The other two PB's both lay light-to-medium brown eggs with darker spots. Do y'all have any ideas as to why/how this happened. It's worth noting that she is 39 weeks old and is a very stressed and scared chicken - she's at the bottom of the pecking order and everyone doesn't waste any time when it comes to putting her in her place.

 

[FunClucks]

Can you post of picture of everyone else's eggs for comparison?

Production Blues are a hatchery cross-breed. Occasionally there is variation in how they turn out. If all her eggs are like this, then this is the normal color for her. Enjoy your sweet girl and colorful egg basket!

 

[TheGreatEscapees]

@FunClucks Here are two of the other PB's eggs.

 

[TheGreatEscapees]

I promise my finger's aren't that short!

 

[FunClucks]

Based on egg shape and mottling, and assuming Ombre continues to lay the same shape/color of eggs, it looks like she just didn't inherit many of the genes that give the tan coloration. There is some coloration, but not much. Brown eggs are genetically white, with a brown "wash" that is applied after the hen forms the shell around the egg white and yolk. If I recall correctly there are something like 23? (a heck of a lot) different genes that direct the deposition of brown pigment. How many of these are present/active determines the shade and tint of the brown pigment. Ombre may have only a few present.

(if you crack a brown egg and peel away the inner membrane from the shell, you will see the shell is white. Also, if you look at the edge of a broken shell piece, it looks white. The brown is a surface phenomenon only, unlike blue eggs, where the color is throughout the entire shell. Green or olive eggs are actually blue eggs with various darknesses of brown wash over them)

If she only lays the occasional lighter egg, and all the others look like the brown of her siblings, then she has an issue with her brown "wash" application station in her egg production "factory". It won't impact the quality of her eggs.

Either way, whether this is a one-off or a permanent condition for Ombre's eggs, it will not affect the quality of the eggs, only the color. Your chicken is also perfectly healthy.

 

[2ndTink]

I'm not familiar with production blues so just did a quick google search and I'm seeing blue chickens with red leakage where yours has silver leakage.

Here's a link to Hoover showing blue chickens with red leakage as well.

https://www.hoovershatchery.com/Production-Blue

Would it be possible that your beautiful Miss Ombre is a different breed? This would explain the egg color difference.