Double shell- 2 different colors!

[eonChancery]

I just found your site. It is great!
I have had chickens all my life but have never seen this before. Any guesses as to why. I found this last week in the coop. It had rolled onto the floor board so it broke. I have 4 hens. One lays light brown eggs, one green, and two dark brown. This eggs has a light brown shell on the outside and a dark brown shell inside!!!!!

 

[21hens-incharge]

It is always fun when our birds pull a fast one on us.

99% of the time these turn out to be that one egg was broken and eaten and the inner egg ends up pushed around winding up inside the shell of the first egg.

 

[silly4buttons]

That so cool but I don’t have a clue maybe a glitch thank you for posting it
Have a nice weekend

 

[ChickenCanoe]

It is from one of your dark brown egg layers (Welsummer?).
It is a rare occurrence but happens when an egg backs up out of the uterus and then re-enters the uterus (shell gland) getting another shell applied.
The reason for the two colors is that most of the pigment had already been applied so there wasn't as much available for the second shell.
No one knows why this happens because it is so rare, it hasn't been studied.
Sometimes an egg backs up farther and joins with the next yolk causing an egg in an egg - not just a double shelled egg.
I've seen a green egg inside a brown egg. The blue pigment had been used up on the first shell and all that was left was brown pigment.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Is that the way you found the egg or was it enclosed in a solid shell? Was it only a half shell?

If it was a solid shell for some reason the hen did not lay the egg when she should have but it was held for later. Maybe something disturbed her while she was on the nest. So the shell gland put an additional shell on it.

The last thing the shell gland does is put a layer of pigment on the outside of a brown egg. The longer it is in there the darker it gets, to a point. The reason the outer shell is lighter may be that she did not have enough pigment left to coat the second egg so quickly after the first or maybe since the second shell is a bit larger there was not enough pigment to put it on so thick and make it dark.

 

[eonChancery]

Is that the way you found the egg or was it enclosed in a solid shell? Was it only a half shell?

If it was a solid shell for some reason the hen did not lay the egg when she should have but it was held for later. Maybe something disturbed her while she was on the nest. So the shell gland put an additional shell on it.

The last thing the shell gland does is put a layer of pigment on the outside of a brown egg. The longer it is in there the darker it gets, to a point. The reason the outer shell is lighter may be that she did not have enough pigment left to coat the second egg so quickly after the first or maybe since the second shell is a bit larger there was not enough pigment to put it on so thick and make it dark.

 

[eonChancery]

When I found the egg it was almost fully covered but cracked. I brought it in to wash it and it lost some of the outside shell. I wonder if the hen was disturbed by our dog while laying it. When I brought it inside to show my son he said to me. "I bet Kirby broke it. He just ran out of the coop" our little cairn may have disturbed her causing that to happen. Wow. It is so interesting. I couldn't believe it when I found it.

 

[eonChancery]

It is always fun when our birds pull a fast one on us.

99% of the time these turn out to be that one egg was broken and eaten and the inner egg ends up pushed around winding up inside the shell of the first egg.

 

[eonChancery]

The photo is really not reflective of what it looked like when I found it. The outside shell really did cover a lot of it. I should have been more careful when I washed it. The outer shell started to break away as the water hit it.

 

[eonChancery]

It is from one of your dark brown egg layers (Welsummer?).
It is a rare occurrence but happens when an egg backs up out of the uterus and then re-enters the uterus (shell gland) getting another shell applied.
The reason for the two colors is that most of the pigment had already been applied so there wasn't as much available for the second shell.
No one knows why this happens because it is so rare, it hasn't been studied.
Sometimes an egg backs up farther and joins with the next yolk causing an egg in an egg - not just a double shelled egg.
I've seen a green egg inside a brown egg. The blue pigment had been used up on the first shell and all that was left was brown pigment.