WORRIED! EGGS ARE CHANGING (w. pics)

[CelestialChicks]

Hey all,

I have a brahma crossbreed chicken who started laying the 15th of september and has roughly given us one egg everyday. But then (two days ago) she didn't lay an egg for two days and today when I checked the nesting box I found this pale/weak looking egg. I'm sure it's from her and not from my other chickens because they are all too young.


Left egg is the pale egg and right egg is the eggs she normally produce


It almost looks like she ran out of pigments, the surface of the eggs also feels really rough.


I’m also pretty sure the shell is really weak as well but I don’t understand why. She get great high quality feed, however it’s not layers food due to the fact that I have chickens of different ages in my flock but on the side there is extra calcium in form of crushed oyster shells. They all free-range and have access to water.

Should I be worried? Is this an indication that she may be sick? I know the weather has been turning colder (I live in Sweden) can that have any effect?

Appreciate all answers!

 

[LogCabinChicks]

I am by no means an expert, I just started with Chickens! but, I noticed this in one of my 21 hens too- can't tell you which one, I also had one egg a day that had a shell that was so weak when I would wash it it would crumble in my hand. I read on here that you can feed egg shells back to the chickens instead of supplementing with purchased calcium.

After the shells are washed and dried, I put them in my food processor and process until it looks like sand. I gave this to the chickens ---my goodness do they love it! Within a day or two all my eggs were nice and brown again and none break in my hands..

So now once a week, I feed the egg shells back to the chickens. I think they just needed added calcium. JMHO. Hope that helps.

 

[CountryFlock]

Give your hen egg shells and oyster shells. It is full of calcium (of course

). Give you grass and greens that you know are ok for chickens. Is it starting to get cold there? Or less sunlight? That may be the cause? DO you have a light for them during the night? IS it giving UV off? Their egg cycles are based on UV exposure and it really messes up their system if you have it on during the night.

 

[CelestialChicks]

As I mentioned in my post, they free range which means they have plenty of grass and greeneries to eat and I supply them with oyster shells. I don't have any lamp inside the coop, their only source of light is the natural sun cycle.

Hmpphh.. Anyway, thanks for the reply. I guess I should save my worry to tomorrow if her egg is still this pale looking and weak

 

[CelestialChicks]

Thanks for the advice, I'll see what I can do

 

[aart]

Is this from an older hen? How old?

Eggs can vary from day to day.
My 2 light brahmas (2.5 years old) often lay lighter rougher eggs...all last winter they both laid really funky misshappen eggs.
But they seem pretty healthy and happy overall...so I don't worry about it.

Adding chicken egg shells might help, read somewhere that it is a more available(nutritionally to the body) form of calcium than the oyster shells.
I rinse, dry, crush shells to less than an 1/8" and add to the oyster shell container.

 

[CelestialChicks]

She's about 9 months old and she just started laying. I checked today and the egg looked much better, so I guess it's what you said - that they do vary from day to day. I'll try the thing with the crushed shells Cheers!