What is up with these chicken eggs? (Photos)

[tayjamieson]

Hello!
I hope everyone is having a great day today, Happy (early) 4th of July!!!

I forgot to post these last week but I wanted to find out what caused a few of my chicken eggs to look so funky/cracked. I have never had this happen before and after the day these were laid I didn't see anymore that were like it, but I'm still curious as to what it was that caused it. I explained their diet below because I know that can be a culprit with eggs looking odd.

A few other observations/factors are:
1) we have had to put 4 of our female ducks in the chicken coop at night the past 2 weeks because our 2 drake's bully 4 out of 5 of the female ducks. One female hangs out with the boys all day and sleeps in their pen with them too, they don't seem to hurt her and she is ALWAYS with them by choice it appears. The 4 girls don't show any interest in the 2 drake's and avoid mating with them at all costs.
2) our chickens have begun to peck at/eat the eggs after they lay them! This could be our fault because we do offer scrambled eggs occasionally as a treat, and we crush up our eggs shells and feed them to the chickens 1-2 times a week. we have stopped feeding them scrambled eggs as a treat!
3) We have 6 nesting boxes in the main coop total shared amongst 10 hens. The 4 female's that stay in the main chicken coop now all lay in the same nesting box or on the floor of the coop.
4) We have 2 other coops aside from the main one: the secondary coop hosts a Silkie hen and a Silkie rooster, and the third coop hosts our 11 semi-new hen chicks who are not laying quite yet and 1 Americana chick rooster (5 months old).

Their Diet:
- Free range/forage all day long, only in coop at night for safety.
- Nutrena brand layer crumble (16% protein) and Scratch grains offered daily
(except at night, we store the food in our shop to avoid rodents in the pens - we are battling a rat problem only in one of our 3 coops for some reason).
- Fruit/Veggie/Dinner scraps (that are safe for them to eat) 1-3 times per week
- Crushed egg shells 1-2 times per week (we save our's from cooking and crush them up for the hens)

I included photo's of the eggs that were odd! Any advice is appreciated as always Thank you so much for taking the time and reading my long posts! You all are amazing.

 

[Kiki]

Stress can cause this also not getting a balanced diet.
I would stop all treats...anything besides the complete balanced commercially made poultry feed.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Check out this article...
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/common-egg-quality-problems.65923/

This could be our fault because we do offer scrambled eggs

Nope, that doesn't cause egg pecking. Most of us do it. However it's good to use them sparingly because while they are nutritious they are 34% protein and whopping 64% fat, with half the protein being in the yolk.

Most often egg eating is a happy accident caused by weak shells. But once it's been discovered it can become a problem. Keeping fake eggs in the nest REALLY helps to deter curiosity pecks. All hens laying in the same place is common.

I would cut out the scratch grains and consider it to possibly be diminishing your nutrients too far.

 

[coach723]

Along with the previous comments I would put out oyster shell or oyster shell mixed with crushed egg shells (I mix about 50/50) in another feeder so it's available to them all the time. They will take what they need. The need for calcium can vary from bird to bird and from season to season. Someone may not be getting quite enough. See if making it available all the time improves your shell quality. Mine get scrambled eggs when I have extra's, the only time I have egg eaters is if someone lays a very thin shelled egg that get's broken, or someone lays one on the poop board that gets broken. I found that by putting fake eggs or golf balls (I use golf balls) in each nest helps get them to use other boxes. They seem to like to use a "used" box, so if it appears to have an egg in it they are more apt to go there. No more fussing over the 'favorite' box.

 

[tayjamieson]

Check out this article...
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/common-egg-quality-problems.65923/


Nope, that doesn't cause egg pecking. Most of us do it. However it's good to use them sparingly because while they are nutritious they are 34% protein and whopping 64% fat, with half the protein being in the yolk.

Most often egg eating is a happy accident caused by weak shells. But once it's been discovered it can become a problem. Keeping fake eggs in the nest REALLY helps to deter curiosity pecks. All hens laying in the same place is common.

I would cut out the scratch grains and consider it to possibly be diminishing your nutrients too far.

oh wow! That is a TON of protein and fat, I mean I always knew eggs were high protein/fat but I did not think it was in that range!! Thank You so much for your reply, it was very informative and answered all of my questions.

I'm so glad I decided to mention the whole outline of their diet because I've often wondered how scratch grains can affect their health/diet since it is considered a treat for them. Tomorrow I will begin only offering the crumble and oyster shell/crushed egg shells as suggested above! I think this is a smart move also based on the fact at the end of the day the scratch grain feeder is practically empty compared to the crumble feeder, so clearly they go for the grains more than they should be. Thank you again so much!!! I really appreciate your reply.

 

[tayjamieson]

Along with the previous comments I would put out oyster shell or oyster shell mixed with crushed egg shells (I mix about 50/50) in another feeder so it's available to them all the time. They will take what they need. The need for calcium can vary from bird to bird and from season to season. Someone may not be getting quite enough. See if making it available all the time improves your shell quality. Mine get scrambled eggs when I have extra's, the only time I have egg eaters is if someone lays a very thin shelled egg that get's broken, or someone lays one on the poop board that gets broken. I found that by putting fake eggs or golf balls (I use golf balls) in each nest helps get them to use other boxes. They seem to like to use a "used" box, so if it appears to have an egg in it they are more apt to go there. No more fussing over the 'favorite' box.

Oh this is great to hear - I use golf balls too!! I do have 2 fake eggs that we received as a white elephant Christmas gift lol so there is a "false" egg in each nesting box except for 1 so I'm excited to hear that it helps! The chickens really like going for our duck eggs, I sometimes set them on top of our mini coops while I'm collecting if my hands are full and if they roll off the chickens try to beat me to it! Oddly the duck eggs never break when they fall, it's fascinating how durable their egg shells are.

We were providing oyster shells/granite grit for our flock regularly, but for some reason we just kind of stopped! I will get back on that, I should have known better that its helpful with egg development. I built a dispenser for both grit and oyster shells inside the coop out of PVC pipe so I'm set up for success I just need to buy it.

Thank you so much! I genuinely appreciate you taking the time to read my posts and give advice!! I'm a first time chicken/duck owner and they just don't have this type of advice, information, etc. on google. You guys ROCK!

 

[Kiki]

Here is a quick/good read:
https://articles.extension.org/pages/69065/feeding-chickens-for-egg-production

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Here is a quick/good read:
https://articles.extension.org/pages/69065/feeding-chickens-for-egg-production

That was a pretty good article... all except the last box on that table that says 15% for all life stages.

I book marked it for future reference.

It's hard to find anything I agree with completely, but there was lots of fantastic information there. Thanks for sharing!