Chicken laid somthing that looked like a cooked yoke! What are we doin

[ericsgirlie]

Yesterday, one of our chickens laid something very strange, There seemed to be white mixed in with it, but it looked like a cooked yoke. What was it and what are we doing wrong. We have 3 hens and they look old enough to lay. In the last 6 weeks, we have had one shelless egg and then this. When will we get some eggs

FYI: They were eating laying pellets, but we just switched them to Layena Crumble. They also get oyster shell.

Thanks in advanced!

 

[kitty928]

Sometimes it just happens.....I wouldn't worry to much if it was just once or twice, as long as you are feeding a quality layer crumble and supplementing with oyster shell.

 

[Rockin' Reds]

Sounds like your feed regimen is good. You didn't mention the age, but if they are young pullets just starting to lay it's completely normal to have weird shaped eggs, soft shells, double yolked eggs, or eggs without shells at all. They are just getting the kinks all worked out. Nothing to worry about.

 

[ericsgirlie]

I am not sure how old they are

We are assuming hoping young. They came from an auction. My husband brought tyhem home as a surprise. He knew nothing about them. The yoke being hard was the weird thing.

Young????

 

[AinaWGSD]

Unfortunately I doubt they are young pullets. They appear to be "debeaked," which is done in large scale poultry operations to prevent/reduce picking under the crowded conditions the hens are kept in. If this is the case, then they are almost certainly retired layers who were at the auction because they are no longer productive enough layers to produce a profit for the farmer.

"Hard/cooked" yolks sounds to me like one of your hens may have an internal laying problem. I don't know how often they pass these things, but what you describe is exactly what you would find in the abdomen of an internal layer if you opened her up. Your chickens appear to be some kind of production red, and internal laying is more common in production layers bred to produce a lot of large eggs for the first two or three years of life.

I don't think you are doing anything wrong. Shell-less eggs just happen sometimes even in the healthiest and best managed flocks and most of the time they are just a fluke and nothing to worry about. I think your chickens are probably older hens that are past their prime egg laying years and/or you have one or more internal layer. Internal laying is not something that you can control with diet (at least not in chickens, in parrots you can reduce it by reducing the amount of feed so that the hen's body doesn't feel there are enough resources to raise a clutch but chickens are different) and is not caused by anything you have done.

 

[ericsgirlie]

They lady that got them for us debeaked them righte before she brought them over

to protect the kids. It was needless and I wish she had not done it

We went back to the person that got them and she assured us they were just too young

 

[Imp]

Perhaps this will help. Read all the way through.

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/grapevine/rule-roost/strange-object-nest-box_25234.html

Good luck

Imp

 

[AinaWGSD]

They also have some missing feathers that make me wonder about their age. Based on how their combs and wattles appear, they are not too young to be laying. If they were too young, their combs would be smaller and much less red.

 

[Cebarmlds]

That's so mean isn't it?! Do the beaks grow back?

 

[ericsgirlie]

No they do not

and apparently it hurts

It looks like my chickens are old. This makes me very sad