Topic of the Week - When eggs go wrong

[nikki_r5]

Anyone here ever get an egg with another complete egg (shell and all) inside it? I so wish I had taken a picture ( or even better a video) of the time I got one!

Yes. A customer who had bought eggs the previous week "returned to me" a container with an egg she'd cracked to use that had a small marble looking object in it.
I chuckled at her & said watch as I broke open the small egg !

 

[nikki_r5]

The problem that came up recently is with one of my Muscovy Ducks (2 females).
She had been laying fine. Then, there had been a few rubbery but now for the last week it's been only "Shell- Less" eggs. The yolk & white is on the ground !

 

[Sylvester017]

The problem that came up recently is with one of my Muscovy Ducks (2 females).
She had been laying fine. Then, there had been a few rubbery but now for the last week it's been only "Shell- Less" eggs. The yolk & white is on the ground !

Well, I personally have not raised ducks or Muscovies but with my chickens, a shell-less egg usually signals the end of their laying cycle or beginning of their molt. My only experience with a rubbery egg was with my 6-yr-old Silkie that had an ovarian tumor and apparently bleeding which gave the rubbery egg an all-over darkish brown color -- not a normal Silkie egg color at all! We sadly had to put her down at the vet when the second rubbery egg layed 2 weeks later had stuck to her vent because it would not release from her internal ovary which got pulled up to the vent opening. Ouch! Poor baby!

 

[nikki_r5]

Thank You !
Maybe part molt since the other one is molting as are my chickens. 9 hens & 3 roos.

 

[Sylvester017]

Yep, this seems to be the time of year molting goes on -- although I've had chickens molt at different times of year. I had a Blue Wheaten Ameraucana (my avatar) who could molt complete pillows up to 3x a year! What I hate about molt season is that my chickens lose their appetite and get reclusive and it's so hard to get them to eat the proteins their bodies so desperately need for regrowth. I have two adult chickens right now almost finished with regrowth and slowly getting back their regular appetites. So far I've been fortunate that none of my molters ever go butt-naked from losing feathers and seem to molt gradually as the new quills come in.

 

[NavyVetVetTech]

Our very first egg this morning was slightly speckled, a liitle small, and had DOUBLE yolks! Tasted great though!

 

[KentuckyRooster]

I get doubles quite a bit because I have a few production layers just starting up. I even got a duck double the other day. Crazy! Then I got a duck fart egg from the same duck. Who knows what she's doing.

I have two big turken hens who can't figure out how to lay a normal egg. Just soft shells. So strange. Again they are of the age to just start, and once in a while they dump out a membrane and a yolk and that's it. Poor confused turkens.

I've seen almost everything at this point. Blood eggs that I had to throw a whole pan out, egg within an egg, egg the size of my fist, egg with bumps or lines or ridges, all sorts of stuff. I'm not picky I'll eat about anything as far as shell nonsense goes, but if it has a lot of blood or no shell I throw it out of course.

 

[MontanaChickDoc]

Any abnormalities in the shell texture like wrinkles or folds indicates an abnormal oviduct lining, usually from inflammation/ disease/ old or really young age / cancer. A healthy lining = smooth eggs. The egg's shell basically takes on the shape of the oviduct as it passes through and the shell material is laid/ deposited over the membrane. If the egg travels through the oviduct too fast, there is no time for normal shell to be laid down. This happens a lot it new layers because their parts are still figuring things out - how fast to move the egg along and such. And before the shell hardens, it is like silly putty and will assume whatever shape surrounds it. If the oviduct is scarred or damaged in any way, the egg shell will be abnormal. Deformed eggs in non - "just starting out" layers is usually a sign of illness/ infection even if in other ways, the bird seems fine.

 

[jodyman]

Do you know what the nutritional deficiency is?

No, when I researched it that's all it said. The laying pellets and veggie scraps from the garden is enough nutrition most of the time. They also like bird seed. But I heard at BYC not to give it to often.

 

[jodyman]

Got these giant eggs this week. And no double yolks.