First of all, sorry for my absence for the past month or so. I was busy finishing up finals, then going to Honduras, and then I spent another couple weeks just enjoying being home and relaxing.
Anyway, my 16 week old Tetra Tint (she’s not officially named, but we’ve been calling her Rooster due to her large red comb, her larger size, and the fact that she’s more vocal and aggressive than the rest of the girls) laid her first egg on the 6th. It was pretty small but completely normal. Here is a picture:
Yes, my hands are pretty small themselves.
Everything’s great, right? Well, now she has me scratching my head. Today, three days later, she laid her second egg. This one, not quite as normal.
Rooster’s weird egg
This egg was about the same size, but when I picked it up, it had this on it. It was soft to the touch, and came off in one piece when I rinsed the egg off. The egg underneath was slightly discolored, but in tact and otherwise normal; it was hard like a normal egg. The discoloration probably could have been scrubbed away, but I know most people frown upon even rinsing their eggs, let alone scrubbing them, so I steered away from that. I ended up hard boiling it and putting it in one of the nesting boxes in their new coop so they would lay there, though I’m sure it was perfectly edible. There’s nothing wrong with Rooster and sometimes when hens start laying, their first eggs are a little unusual, so I guess it’s just one of those “weird eggs” one gets every once in a while.
However, I’m still extremely curious as to what this is, so if anyone has any idea, please let me know. I’ve been asking around, but the only possible answer I’ve gotten is that maybe it’s a soft egg that didn’t form properly and got stuck to the regular egg. That seems plausible, but if anyone has had this before or knows what it is, I’d love to hear about it.
My egg doesn’t seem to match any issues addressed in this article, but here is some information on egg quality problems:
http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/common-egg-quality-problems
Do you ever get any weird eggs from your hens?
-C&C
Chicks & Crafts 