Egg with a cracked shell

[SomeChookLover]

Hey everyone.
I was collecting the eggs today when I found one of them had a cracked shell. Now this wouldn’t be out of the ordinary, but it looks like it came out broken, rather than broke for whatever reason. It also has this strange white powder looking effect. My chickens should have all the vitamins and calcium they need, so if that were the cause it would be a hen specific issue.
The hen I believe laid this has made unusual eggs before, which are often misshapen and have weird features (like one randomly had spots and none of our chickens have spotted eggs). She also was attacked by a fox, but that was quite a while ago and she has made a full recovery apart from some discoloured feathers. She is also about 3 years old.
The weather has been quite weird lately, but no other eggs seem unusual, the only real consequence I’ve noticed is the chooks weigh less than they usually do this time of year.
Any advice, ideas or suggestions are welcome

Here is a photo of the egg compared to one she laid a few days ago.

 

[aart]

Eggs can crack during the shelling process, then be 'repaired' with further shelling. Unless it's a constant occurrence, I'd not worry about it.

Do you actually weigh them?
Where in this wide world do you live?

 

[Noraaaaa]

Hey everyone.
I was collecting the eggs today when I found one of them had a cracked shell. Now this wouldn’t be out of the ordinary, but it looks like it came out broken, rather than broke for whatever reason. It also has this strange white powder looking effect. My chickens should have all the vitamins and calcium they need, so if that were the cause it would be a hen specific issue.
The hen I believe laid this has made unusual eggs before, which are often misshapen and have weird features (like one randomly had spots and none of our chickens have spotted eggs). She also was attacked by a fox, but that was quite a while ago and she has made a full recovery apart from some discoloured feathers. She is also about 3 years old.
The weather has been quite weird lately, but no other eggs seem unusual, the only real consequence I’ve noticed is the chooks weigh less than they usually do this time of year.
Any advice, ideas or suggestions are welcome

Here is a photo of the egg compared to one she laid a few days ago.View attachment 4009488

Mine look quite similar when they freeze! If your weather is cold this may happen to your eggs as well. (My naughty hens layed outside for a few days before i found out

 

[GodLovesU]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/common-egg-quality-problems.65923/

 

[SomeChookLover]

Eggs can crack during the shelling process, then be 'repaired' with further shelling. Unless it's a constant occurrence, I'd not worry about it.

Do you actually weigh them?
Where in this wide world do you live?

That makes sense, she was in the nesting box this morning so I’ll be able to check if it happens again.
I usually weigh them a few times a year but mostly go by the keel bone. None of them are significantly underweight, they weigh similar to when they’re molting.
I live in Southern Australia and climate change is certainly taking its toll. There’s been a lot of extreme storms and humidity which isn’t normal in this part of Australia. It’s also been really unpredictable, some days it’s mild or hot and dry or humid and hot and the chickens can’t really get used to anything. I’ve also noticed a lot of the wild birds and plants are very confused. The mulberry tree has been fruiting since October when it usually has a very short fruiting period, and I don’t think the magpies have had a single chick this year.
All that to say the chooks have definitely been affected by this.
Thanks for your reply!

 

[SomeChookLover]

Mine look quite similar when they freeze! If your weather is cold this may happen to your eggs as well. (My naughty hens layed outside for a few days before i found out

Oh that’s really interesting! It definitely hasn’t been freezing recently but I am planning to move to Tassie so that’s good to know! Thanks for your help!

 

[avjudge]

For one reason or another chickens can definitely lay pre-cracked eggs. I have one, a black Australorp, that started laying just a bit over a year ago – the first of that year’s to lay – and for about two weeks laid beautiful, normal-looking, strong-shelled eggs. Then the shells got soft, then disappeared. For some time she did not lay. (There may have been a lash egg in there somewhere.)

Then eventually she resumed laying. But her eggs were now almost spherical, like a ping-pong ball. And more often than not they came out cracked.

I worried so much about her, still do. She would stop laying for a while and I would breathe a sigh of relief. But she always resumed. I tried extra calcium etc. but saw no difference, so I just let her be. Of course now she’s on her winter break, and we will see what things look like in the spring. But I assume it is highly likely that eventually she will die from one of these eggs breaking completely.

It doesn’t sound or look like your hen has anything so severe going on.