Two questions on eggs...

[Scooby308]

Two more eggs out of the two girls tonight.


As an aside, notice the "spots" on these eggs. One of the girls has been laying these. The shells are thinner than store bought on all my eggs, and I do supplement with oyster shells. What are these growths on the eggs?

 

[April’s Zoo]

My understanding is that the bumps don’t mean anything really. It’s just an irregularity in the way the shell is made around the egg. I wonder if that’s why the shells seem kinda thin overall, though. Maybe that hen excretes the right amount of calcium to cover the egg, but somehow it doesn’t go on evenly and clumps up. Perhaps she begins excreting it a tad too soon, or maybe a bit late. Either way, there’d be excess at one end of the egg or the other.

Is she a young(ish) layer? Or is she recently coming back into lay after a break? All hens lay bumpy eggs now and then, but “experienced” layers don’t usually lay them like this consistently, afaik.

Have you thought about marking their vents with food coloring in order to see who is laying which eggs? Really, you only need to mark one of them, but you could mark them each in a different color just to be sure that at least one of them will leave a stripe on their egg that you can identify.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Two more eggs out of the two girls tonight.


As an aside, notice the "spots" on these eggs. One of the girls has been laying these. The shells are thinner than store bought on all my eggs, and I do supplement with oyster shells. What are these growths on the eggs?

View attachment 1435634

The bumps are calcium deposits. I saw them more when I fed a layer ration. Some hens get too much calcium from a layer.

Thin shelled eggs are seen more in warmer weather as when a hen pants it alters her blood ph, which interferes with her ability to maintain calcium levels in her blood. So it's possible the calcium deposits are from panting as well as thin shells.

You can add some electrolytes to their water or even some baking soda, 1/2 cup to a gallon of water for no more than a week at a time to help them balance it all out. Always provide fresh plain water as an option as well.

Don't use vinegar in warm weather as it can mess with a hens calcium uptake.

 

[Scooby308]

My understanding is that the bumps don’t mean anything really. It’s just an irregularity in the way the shell is made around the egg. I wonder if that’s why the shells seem kinda thin overall, though. Maybe that hen excretes the right amount of calcium to cover the egg, but somehow it doesn’t go on evenly and clumps up. Perhaps she begins excreting it a tad too soon, or maybe a bit late. Either way, there’d be excess at one end of the egg or the other.

Is she a young(ish) layer? Or is she recently coming back into lay after a break? All hens lay bumpy eggs now and then, but “experienced” layers don’t usually lay them like this consistently, afaik.

Have you thought about marking their vents with food coloring in order to see who is laying which eggs? Really, you only need to mark one of them, but you could mark them each in a different color just to be sure that at least one of them will leave a stripe on their egg that you can identify.

They are a year old. Catch you say? Lol, that means slate night for me catching them on the roost.

 

[Scooby308]

The bumps are calcium deposits. I saw them more when I fed a layer ration. Some hens get too much calcium from a layer.

Thin shelled eggs are seen more in warmer weather as when a hen pants it alters her blood ph, which interferes with her ability to maintain calcium levels in her blood. So it's possible the calcium deposits are from panting as well as thin shells.

You can add some electrolytes to their water or even some baking soda, 1/2 cup to a gallon of water for no more than a week at a time to help them balance it all out. Always provide fresh plain water as an option as well.

Don't use vinegar in warm weather as it can mess with a hens calcium uptake.

It has been unusually hot here. That said, one was laying the bumpies before the heat wave. The NHRs are drinking nearly 2x as much water as the WOs . They get fresh, cool water 3x a day. I will try the soda.

One thing I have noticed is all the eggs seem thin shelled as compared to store bought.

Also, the guy who gave them to me had them on a layer feed from a local feedmill. Not sure what was in it. I started them on Purina layer feed. The last 2 weeks they have been on flock raiser with oyster shells offeredfree choice.

 

[tuesdaylove]

My young EE laid two eggs in one day, just within the first week she was laying.

And yes, they can be different sizes. My d'Uccle hen just laid a very skinny, pointy egg, when she normally lays almost completely round eggs. The aforementioned EE's eggs vary in shape; some are rounder than others. One of my d'Uccle mixes was laying oddly large eggs for a while -- so big they were making her bleed -- and now they're small again.

 

[perchie.girl]

typically as a hen matures the eggs get larger and larger.... IN the case of two eggs in one day its a matter of timing... and you may find it happens once every month or so Because most hens lay a few days then take a day or two off.... Their rythm may be shorter than 24 hours. and it works out to be that spans a 24 hour period.

Fart eggs are usually just the Albumen without the yolk. It can happen at any age but is most common with pullets.... first time layers.

Odd bumps and spots or speckles are totally normal.

deb

 

[Bonniebooboo]

Here are a some pictures of some fart eggs/oops eggs, the littlest one was really a fart egg, it was airy, and the very little fluid that dried out apparently fairly y fast as it was dry in there when I cracked it open and the membrane inside with the tiny yellow spot, could be removed intact. sorry, I don't have a picture of when I removed it for investigative purposes.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Hens who have had Newcastle disease, Infectious Bronchitis etc. and lived often have deformed reproductive tracks and this can lead to soft shelled eggs, internal laying, fart eggs, lash eggs, deformed eggs, eggs with bumps on the shells, even an egg inside of an egg among other problems. As a child in one hen house we kept daily records on each hens' egg production on an index card stapled to a plank on the top of her cage, and I never remember a hen laying twice in one day but we did have one hen who laid every day for over a year straight.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I bet he hated that. This is the first it has happened. The hen(s) in question are year old NHRs .should it continue, they will be separated so I can determine and try to collect her eggs to incubate. Wouldn't that be a great genetic by product to have?

Your much more likely to have success with this breeding experiment if you were to breed her father to this hen and breed her mother back to a son then continue inbreeding between these two lines, always keeping your eyes open for a super layer and continuing on from there.