'Wrinkled' egg?

[Toril]

I have seen a few of them occasionally with my 'old' hens, but one of the adult hens I bought recently is consistently laying 'wrinkled' eggs. Does anyone know how this happens? I'll post a picture if it's not clear what I mean.

 

[BarredBuff]

Is the shell hard or soft?

 

[Toril]

It's hard - just like a regular egg, just very wrinkled.

 

[PDurkin]

Can you post a picture?

 

[feathersnuggles]

Here's a shell quality link:
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/979/maintaining-egg-shell-quality

 

[77horses]

If the egg shell is wrinkled and the shell seems to be very thin and easily broken, your hen may have a deficiency in something that is disabling her to properly lay normal-shelled eggs. It might help to feed her crushed up oyster shells, and/or cooked eggs.

Although, if the shell appears to still have normal thickness and isn't as easily broken compared to the 'normal' eggs, sometimes hens just lay abnormal eggs that turn out weird. It's usually pretty normal in all hens that are laying to get a "bad egg". Occasionally, you'll get double yolkers, and sometimes even eggs without shells (just the membrane, so the yolk is visible through the nearly-clear membrane...pretty weird, huh?

). You might even get a tiny egg the size of a quarter, often without a yolk, just the whites part of the egg. These are known as "fart eggs", or "dud eggs". All of these abnormal forms of eggs will be laid occasionally, and are normal. But again, like I said, if the shell is abnormally thin, then it's not normal and should raise more concern.

Good luck!

 

[Toril]

Here's a picture:

Thank you for the link about shell quality, Feathersnuggles - this looks like what they say is typical for a viral disease?!

Unfortunately, I was just able to look at the page once... I wanted to go back to it but the site seems to be down!

This egg is a few days old, and I have had other eggs from the same chicken after this one that seemed much less wrinkled, just a little at each end. Need to read more...

ETA: Reading more, it looks like this could be either an old bird or a sick bird. The eggs overall are quite large, so I think the seller lied about the age of these bird (the RIRs) and they are much older than 2009.

 

[feathersnuggles]

Quote:
You're welcome. Based on your description of the egg being quite large, the wrinkling (in addition to the possibility of viral disease) could also be due to crowding within the shell gland and/or a shell gland defect, of some sort. An accurate diagnosis can be difficult. You could make sure the hens are supplemented with oyster shell, plus give them raw apple cider vinegar (ACV) mixed into their water (but not in a metal waterer). The ACV ratio is 2 tablespoons per 1 gallon water.

It can be hard to tell a hen's age, but you can get some clues from the condition of their feet & legs, the yellowing of the vent, beak wear & claw wear (it's more sharply pointed on younger birds, more blunted on older ones), and overall comb and face condition. Plus, if they are healthy and have an optimal diet and good forage, you can get another clue by the number of eggs she lays.

 

[Mrs. Feathers]

This happened to one of my hens when she was stressed by the neighbour`s dog the day before she laid the egg.
I did a bit of searching, including the great link that feathersnuggles provided.
This apparently can happen if the bird is stressed. We have not had another one like this since.
It sounds like this is a new hen for you? Perhaps the transition to a new home was stressful for her?...just a thought if all else seems okay.

 

[SnowycreeksHens]

I'm a newbie as of last Spring when I ordered baby chicks and they arrived at the Post Office in a tiny box...I was amazed. Since then I've had tons of experiences that bring lots of wonder and laughs. Scanning thru the posts here, I see many questions or comments that fit me to a 't'. The 'wrinkled' egg is one so I had to stop and put in my newbie two cents.

I ordered all my baby chicks from the same place, all same size and age. Once they started laying, late October, I've had a few 'wrinkled' eggs and they are always very large in size. Otherwise they are normal hard shells and taste good. I also get lots of double yokers, they are beautiful eggs and we and our g'dtrs rejoice at the size of them. And my last surprise was a very tiny, perfectly round brown egg about half the size of a golf ball or smaller. I'm saving that one to put on display..lol. A friend has an egg blower and she wants to blow out the innards so we can save the cute shell.

My hens are free range whenever they want. At night they go to their coop with a light on.
I built them a leanto off the coop but they still insist on going out in the snow. They love hanging around our steps and decks...love it except for the awful poo mess!

While I hear of others whose hens have stopped laying this winter, including my neighbor's hens, we are amazed that we are getting anywhere from 14 to 18 eggs a day and yesterday hit the bell with 20! This from 8 Silver Phoenix hens (their eggs are very small and some are pointy) and about 15+ New Hampshires. I feed all natural cracked corn from local farm and supplement with layer crumbles. With winter here I toss out some scratch and I do spoil my babies....I give them lots of dry bread cubes/toast/bagels and lots of table scraps that I partially dry out. I love my girls and they leave me such nice presents every day. One 60W bulb on at all times, coop is closed up at night. Waterer sits on heated bottom.

I'm just adding all this in because my hens and roos all seem very healthy. I have two breeds and they are all together. I do have one hen I'm having an issue with but I'm going to do a separate post about her. Hope this is helpful.