Black egg yolks...

[Sara Ranch]

What causes an egg to go bad (black egg yolk) when the other eggs collected at the same time are fine. Stored the same way.

Chicken (or two) might have girl parts sick?

****

The eggs are about a month old, kept on the counter, never washed. Never been an issue. Can usually keep eggs for several months on the counter without a problem. Pretty good about collecting eggs a few times an hour. (During the great snake event, it was more like every 5-10 minutes.)

The eggs are all from the same flock. Couldn't tell you who(m) is laying the rotten eggs, but man, it's icky!!! Stinky icky!!! Age of girls is unknown. Some give off the energy of being ancient while others act middle aged.

The overall flock is several years old. Production has dropped from about 93% production to 28-34% (a molt n progress.)

Do eggs going badly quickly indicate a health issue for the chicken?

If so, what is it and what do I look for? (None of the girls appears to have any issues but that is just looking at the standard stuffs.)

 

[BYCforlife]

Hello! I have only had one bad egg, and it was greenish, not black. I don't know what your coop looks like, but is it possible that your hens buried some eggs, and then turned them up again later? That happens in my coop somtimes, especially with my young hens.

 

[Lazy Farmer]

What causes an egg to go bad (black egg yolk) when the other eggs collected at the same time are fine. Stored the same way.

Chicken (or two) might have girl parts sick?

****

The eggs are about a month old, kept on the counter, never washed. Never been an issue. Can usually keep eggs for several months on the counter without a problem. Pretty good about collecting eggs a few times an hour. (During the great snake event, it was more like every 5-10 minutes.)

The eggs are all from the same flock. Couldn't tell you who(m) is laying the rotten eggs, but man, it's icky!!! Stinky icky!!! Age of girls is unknown. Some give off the energy of being ancient while others act middle aged.

The overall flock is several years old. Production has dropped from about 93% production to 28-34% (a molt n progress.)

Do eggs going badly quickly indicate a health issue for the chicken?

If so, what is it and what do I look for? (None of the girls appears to have any issues but that is just looking at the standard stuffs.)

I would to see a photo of it..
If not, still ok..

 

[Sara Ranch]

Nope.

The girls moved into the building this summer. No hen had ever been in the building prior to the move in. So no chance of that.

The whole yolk was black. Looked like a normal egg (except black yolk) and it stank!!!

There's no chance it was fertilized either. The flock was without a rooster for a bit. The young guys in with them now aren't old enough to be daddies, although I have had he daddy talk with them.

Hopefully someone might have some information. I can deal with a stinky egg or two. I am more concerned about an unknown, unseeable problem with my girls. I know that they appear healthy, act healthy, and can go down fast.

 

[Sara Ranch]

@Farmer Connie - they've all been disposed of. Quickly.

If I come across more, I will take a picture for you.

 

[sawilliams]

If you can seperate eggs (sorry then by colors I would crack a few random ones of similar color to detirmed out it was more of a laying issue or an storage issue. Maybe even just crack and check all the eggs the next 2-3 days. At least that way you might beable to see if there is an issue that you might need to address and treat.

If it only appears in older eggs it might be a storage issue, or like suggested a lost egg that sat longer then normal before being collected. I would hope that if it is possibly a sick hen you might be able to detect the issue even in a fresh egg.

Unfortunately you miggt need to waste a lot of eggs to find the issue, but if toy make scrambled eggs everyday for a little while at least you could use the good ones. Crack them in a seperate bowl for inspection and if they are go transfer to a collecting bowl before cracking the next. Nothing is worse then having to throw out a dozen eggs becuase the last one was gross. I personal have only had it happen 1 time and it was store bought eggs early into or chicken raising adventures. I was so mad but fortunaly had just enough fresh eggs collected to finish breakfast...

 

[Lazy Farmer]

@Farmer Connie - they've all been disposed of. Quickly.

If I come across more, I will take a picture for you.

I have seen dark green, dark red but never black yet.. boy they smelled! I don't blame you in the least bit!

 

[Akrnaf2]

Nope.

The girls moved into the building this summer. No hen had ever been in the building prior to the move in. So no chance of that.

The whole yolk was black. Looked like a normal egg (except black yolk) and it stank!!!

There's no chance it was fertilized either. The flock was without a rooster for a bit. The young guys in with them now aren't old enough to be daddies, although I have had he daddy talk with them.

Hopefully someone might have some information. I can deal with a stinky egg or two. I am more concerned about an unknown, unseeable problem with my girls. I know that they appear healthy, act healthy, and can go down fast.

Some eggs could have some microscopic cracks that allows entering of microbes into the eggs. In this situation the egg will rot very quickly and the smell will be awful! (It is the Hydrogen sulfide caused by the microbial activities on the yolk)

 

[sawilliams]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/one-of-my-hens-is-laying-rotten-eggs-help.429741/

I found this thread. One of the posts indicate it found be a bacterial or fungal infection of the ovaduct. Indication, that the egg would possibly be detectible as bad if cracked the same day. Solution, would be that she needs to be removed and culled, though i would hope to find more info to attempt treatment first.

You would need to find away to seperate hens untill you can locate the culprit or culprits. But again lots of wasted eggs to find the sick

 

[Akrnaf2]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/one-of-my-hens-is-laying-rotten-eggs-help.429741/

I found this thread. One of the posts indicate it found be a bacterial or fungal infection of the ovaduct. Indication, that the egg would possibly be detectible as bad if cracked the same day. Solution, would be that she needs to be removed and culled, though i would hope to find more info to attempt treatment first.

You would need to find away to seperate hens untill you can locate the culprit or culprits. But again lots of wasted eggs to find the sick

One way is to use some cheep lipsticks, in different colors to mark the vents of some chickens and see if the egg is smeared with it, that color could do the match between the bad egg and the chicken.