veteran chicken keepers help needed, have you ever seen this?

[pixiedouglas]

Chicken details
Pullet 'Cinnamon Queen' from Cackle
9 months age
Been laying eggs about 2 months
Healthy, friendly, vigorous hen, she's a great forager, curious and easy going
Food is lay pellets and we provide free choice oyster shell.

Her eggs look like this.... She lays very regularly about 5-6/wk

Sometimes they are thin and break easy. The egg inside is fine, but there does seem to be a lot more egg white than our other eggs. Sometimes they get broke in the nest box, so that now when we know she's laying we try to go out and get the egg when she comes out of the box clucking.

One night I went out to collect the eggs and she was standing over an egg with no shell inside the next box. It was like she was stuck. I noticed a soft shell stuck in her vent and gently pulled it out. Once I removed it she started moving again and seemed fine, I checked her and it didn't seem like she had anything else "stuck". That was over a week ago and she's still laying these funny eggs.

My question is for the veteran chicken keepers, have you ever seen something like this go on for this long and if so did the bird get over it?

 

[ADozenGirlz]

That is a 'body check' egg and it's not uncommon. Strange eggs are to be expected of new layers but it sounds like this particular girl is producing more than her share. It sounds like her diet is what it should be but is there any chance she's getting lots of treats? If so, she may be replacing junk food for the nutrients she needs to make strong, normal looking eggs.
Some diseases can cause irregular eggs to be laid frequently but from your description I would say that she's still just trying to get her egg-laying machinery firing on all cylinders. Here's an article I wrote about the egg-making process and what 'body check' eggs are that may make you feel better about what's going on with her. I hope it helps!
http://eggcartonlabels.blogspot.com/2012/01/how-hen-makes-egg-egg-oddities.html

Chicken details
Pullet 'Cinnamon Queen' from Cackle
9 months age
Been laying eggs about 2 months
Healthy, friendly, vigorous hen, she's a great forager, curious and easy going
Food is lay pellets and we provide free choice oyster shell.

Her eggs look like this.... She lays very regularly about 5-6/wk

Sometimes they are thin and break easy. The egg inside is fine, but there does seem to be a lot more egg white than our other eggs. Sometimes they get broke in the nest box, so that now when we know she's laying we try to go out and get the egg when she comes out of the box clucking.

One night I went out to collect the eggs and she was standing over an egg with no shell inside the next box. It was like she was stuck. I noticed a soft shell stuck in her vent and gently pulled it out. Once I removed it she started moving again and seemed fine, I checked her and it didn't seem like she had anything else "stuck". That was over a week ago and she's still laying these funny eggs.

My question is for the veteran chicken keepers, have you ever seen something like this go on for this long and if so did the bird get over it?

 

[pixiedouglas]

Well I googled body check egg and I admit that does look a lot like her egg. Learned some more about how eggs are made too!

But she's STILL laying these eggs, we get one every day and we're pretty sure it's the same hen each time. She's been laying these since early January. Sometimes they are smaller and less wrinkled and we think okay she's getting better then we'll get one that's huge with a thin shell again.

 

[terryg]

Those issues, though often due to diet, disease or stress, also have a strong genetic component. Some hens never lay a "normal" egg. Hopefully your hen will sort it out and the eggs will improve. But, at this point, your hen's eggs are prone to breakage, are likely harder to lay because of the texture, and are more prone to infection, so I think you'll have serious health issues down the road.
More about egg production here:
http://www.hencam.com/henblog/2012/02/brown-green-blue-white-chicken-egg-color-the-real-story/

 

[Hyline]

I have a hen with very similar problems, she had a shell gland infection which kept recurring despite antibiotics and anti-inflammatories and resulted in her having a 6 monthly hormone implant to shut down her cycle altogether. SHe is healthy and happy now. It does seem to be genetic, another pullet I bought from the same breeder has started having similar issues, though we understood what was happening and caught it early, so she may be ok now. If not we know what treatment plan to go for.

You vet should be able to guide you, but the implant is not expensive and is well worth it

 

[pixiedouglas]

thanks everyone for your responses, we're thinking it is just genetic with her

she's otherwise a very healthy and vigorous hen, it's too bad

we don't really care if the eggs are ugly it doesn't bother us, but it would be sad if this caused her to have health problems later on