what are these archaic-looking eggs???

[HeyMama]

Any ideas why I get eggs that look like they're moon eggs?

I have a 16-month old hen who lays these archaic looking dinosaur
eggs! They look like they're thick and layered, but they're actually
sometimes quite fragile at the tip. They're rough in texture as well
as being crusty looking. weird.

she has always layed eggs like this.

 

[Kelsie2290]

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/publications/1/egg-quality-handbook/18/misshapen-eggs
http://www.alltech.com/sites/default/files/alltech-egg-shell-quality-poster.pdf
Poster from Alltech (Corrugated Eggs on the left middle row) and The Poultry Sites page for those, it looks like in the case of your girl it could be a defective shell gland since she has always laid them, and nobody else seems to be having problems?

 

[HeyMama]

I assume they're fine to eat....we HAVE been eating them. They just look so odd.

She doesn't appear to be sick in any way; she's the top bird in the pecking order and
the only one who can figure out how to regularly get out of the fence.

Is there anything to be done?

 

[HeyMama]

That site you referred to (alltech) said it may be cause
by "an inability to control and terminate plumping"

????????? what is THAT??

 

[Kelsie2290]

It's the step in making an egg, when it goes into the shell gland, the egg spends a couple of hours absorbing water and salt through the membranes, before the shell starts to form.
This is old and I have had it book marked forever, but it is a nice article.
www.skylinecollege.edu/case/biol215/docs/eggshell.pdf

 

[Kelsie2290]

I don't know what you could do about it if it is a defective shell gland. I have gotten those kinds of eggs occasionally from random older chickens, and some of my old White Leghorns have layed them fairly often. Have never tried to do anything about it, because as you said the eggs seem fine, we just use them ourselves or feed them to the dogs. I think in the case of my chickens it is either inherited/age related since it is almost always old commercial white leghorns and it is not consistent enough to be disease, and nothing else really fits. I also don't remember ever getting them from pullets.