What happened to this Egg?

[paulzie32]

Hey Everyone! My first post.

We got our first 5 Chickens about a month ago and were told they should start laying in a week or two. One was already sitting on 3 eggs and the guy we got them from said they should hatch in 18-19 days and 19 days later we had 1 chick hatch. Unfortunately, the day the guy delivered the 5 chickens, I noticed diarrhea but the "farmer" guy said it was just due to the stress of moving. Well, it didn't go away and it started sneezing a few days later. One buy one, the rest got it and I was told to get some Tetracycline and give it to them in their water for at least 2 weeks but Not to eat the eggs for a week after stopping treatment.

Well, this morning was the first day I stopped the Tetracycline and this afternoon, one of my hens laid her very first egg.
She was also the first to recover from their cold.
They have been eating Layena laying mash and cracked corn, Plus what ever they eat around the yard. I'm in Florida and was told they do not need any crushed oyster shell or any other calcium supplement because our "soil" (and I use that word loosely) is basically just crushed coral sand.
Well, this egg looks like a lack of calcium Plus something else going on here.
It was not completely closed at the narrow end as you can see albumen leaking out in some photos. That thin part was also quite soft and you can see all the fine cracks. The hen looked quite stunned too. We found her just after she layed it and she was just standing there looking at it. They don't normally let us "Pet" them but she seemed so stunned she just stood there as we pet her, then lifted her up to take her down from the box and she still just stood there while we pet her.
Is this egg due to the antibiotics? The shell was quite thin but when cracked open, looked very normal inside.
TIA
Paul

 

[Chick Charm]

Good photo's and description. All in all, I wouldn't worry about anything. The first few eggs can be pretty strange sometimes. Sometimes new laying hens will lay an egg without a shell at all. That coupled with the condition of the chickens and the meds all lead to a funny looking egg. You should get an award for the unique shape. The laying cycle should smooth itself out in about a month. It never hurts to provide oyster shell for laying hens. They will eat what the need of it.

Wish ya the best.

 

[Chambertin]

We had a couple tadpole eggs at our place after they were sick.
It was the last part of the process getting all the shell and calcium in place, and she just didnt have the timing right.

The good news is it usually sorts itself out.
However the bad news is that some of them just get really messed up and keep producing soft eggs.
Ugly and strange, but not bad. Just ugly and strange.

 

[mrsc1951]

I also live in Florida but DO provide crushed oyster shell for my girls. They eat what they want. It certainly doesn't hurt to provide it and with the exception of a few soft shelled eggs when they first started laying, their eggs have nice hard shells now.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/publications/6/diseases-of-poultry/194/infectious-bronchitis-ib

Deformed or soft shelled eggs laid by a mature hen are usually an indication of one strain or the other of a disease called Infectious bronchitis. Before you complain that your chicks were vaccinated at the hatchery for this disease the vaccine is only effective for local or regional strains of infectious bronchitis. Also the vaccine is notoriously ineffective.

Break a known disease free egg of a known age and weight in a dinner plate. Break an egg from one of your suspect hens of an equal age and size in an identical plate. A hen who is infected with IB lays an egg with a watery white that will spread out more than an equally fresh egg from a healthy hen. An infected hen also lays eggs with little external pigment.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

If your soil is basically crushed coral your soil is basically crushed oyster shells.

Any hen who is sitting on 3 eggs has laid a lot more than 3 eggs. She and maybe all the hens are mature if one of them are setting and all are the same age.

 

[paulzie32]

Thanks All, I won't worry about it too much then. I'll just wait and see what happens. The yard actually has Crushed shell (not the normal sand stuff) that is used as a ground cover... Maybe that's not small or soft enough. I'll get some crushed Oyster shell too.

To chickengeorgeto - When I cracked open the egg, the white did look really watery... but it was a first egg so didn't think much of it. As for the three eggs... that was all the guy that brought the birds over to us brought with him. She was probably sitting on more at his place but he wasn't going to give us 12 eggs for free She is also older and definitely the dominant bird in the flock! The others really were young and their combs and wattles are growing. We were just commenting about the one that laid the deformed egg the other day, how hangie it was getting under her chin. There's another that also has started getting pretty large too. She'll probably be next to lay.

 

[paulzie32]

Got our second egg this morning. It was sitting on the ground and was broken open. It had a Leathery shell like a reptile egg. No hard shell at all. But that must have been from one of the other hens. And a Third was sitting on a shelf trying to lay there so I picked her up and placed her in a nest where she stayed... I'm guessing I'll find an egg in the morning. So that makes three laying and so far 2 with lame eggs. Glad I can't eat them for a week because of the Antibiotics. Fingers crossed they get better.