Wrinkly eggs.

[Paulo515]

Does anyone know what causes eggs to look all wrinkly like these? We get a couple of these a week.
Sometimes its not as pronounced as these. Nothing unusual inside.

 

[chauqg]

I've had several just like those you pictured. THey were from new laying hens and they were laying soft shells before the wrinkled ones. All is fine after a few days their eggs are normal, small but normal. Hope this helps... BTW they taste fine.

 

[Mahonri]

Looks like they are trying to get the kinks out of the egg laying machinery.

I have one hen that has a wrinkle in almost every egg. We eat them but I won't incubate any of them.

Most of the time they go away after a while.

 

[Paulo515]

My hens have been laying for at least 7 months. The kinks should be out by now.

 

[teach1rusl]

Wow...are the shells hard (normal hard)??? They look kind of cool... Of course the coolness factor probably wears off after a while...

 

[speckledhen]

Usually, those are a sign of a bout with infectious bronchitis, which damages the reproductive machinery. There may be other causes, but that "wrinkly paper bag" egg is a classic symptom. If it was just one, I'd say a fluke, but if you're getting them regularly, I'd say possibly IB.

 

[Paulo515]

They seem to be as hard as normal.

 

[HEChicken]

I agree the kinks should be out by now and can't really say what is causing this. You could try marketing them as a new type of very rare egg and ask $20 per dozen?

Seriously though, is it just one hen laying these, or multiple? If only one hen, I would guess it is a problem SHE has (weird defect) but if it is multiple hens producing them, you would need to look further for the cause, such as:

What is their diet? I.e., if you are feeding a layer feed (that already has calcium in it) and then adding oyster shell to the feed as I've heard of people doing, it might be possible they are getting too much calcium.

 

[Paulo515]

I think it's only one hen as we regularly get one egg per day from each hen and never multiples of the wrinkle eggs.
We feed them layer and scratch grains not adding any oyster shell. They free range all day.

If it is the infectious bronchitis do I need to isolate that hen? I see chicken butts and food coloring in my future.

 

[Taylor]

eat em' look fine to me, but i wouldn't incubate them tho