Egg Yolks Soft or Liquified When Cracked

[crazy4bassin]

For a month or so now I have been finding eggs with what I can only describe as exploding yolk. When we crack an egg to use it the Yolk is just liquid and some just seem to be soft and break on impact either in a bowl or pan. No smell or anything. I collect my eggs daily or sometimes every other day during the winter months. It doesn’t seem to be from one specific chicken or breed. Right now I am feeding them flock raiser and scratch grains with some black soldier fly larvae as a treat, I am providing them with supplemental calcium also. I have been raising chickens for several years now and have never experienced this problem before. Hoping someone could shed some light on this problem. Thanks.

 

[Battlepants]

I'm curious if they are freezing. Ice crystals do rather horrific things to organic matter.

Note - if this is the case, still perfectly safe to eat, just might not be the desired texture.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

That's weird. The eggs hadn't been shaken had they?
Watching...

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

When I looked it up just now online:
1. Low Protein Diet
2. Stress or Molting
3. Weather
4. Old Eggs
5. Eggs were shaken
Maybe some others will pipe in.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Age of birds can play a factor. Also, cut the scratch grains out. Generally, a protein deficient diet will cause weaker yolks, but since flock raiser should be 18-20% protein (and BSF are high protein, but also very high fat), that's only an issue if the AA profile of the protein they are getting is imbalanced - and I'm having difficulty running down which AAs are most critical for yolk membrane formation, but since yolk membrane is largely glycoproteins, and the critical AA most associated with glycoproteins is Threonine, that would be my guess. Yolk membranes also contain lysozyme, which is "complex", but again has relativeley high levels of threonine.

Threonine, btw, is most easily obtained from animal sources, and from nuts.

(this chemistry is beyond my study, but the ratio of Met/Lys/Thr is easy 2:6:7 [roughly]. The same ratio in BSFL is 2:6:3. In your Flock Raiser??? Who knows, most labels don't list Threonine levels.)

Finally, any chance the eggs are freezing? A frozen egg will definitely damage the connectives that form the membrane.

 

[crazy4bassin]

Age of birds can play a factor. Also, cut the scratch grains out. Generally, a protein deficient diet will cause weaker yolks, but since flock raiser should be 18-20% protein (and BSF are high protein, but also very high fat), that's only an issue if the AA profile of the protein they are getting is imbalanced - and I'm having difficulty running down which AAs are most critical for yolk membrane formation, but since yolk membrane is largely glycoproteins, and the critical AA most associated with glycoproteins is Threonine, that would be my guess. Yolk membranes also contain lysozyme, which is "complex", but again has relativeley high levels of threonine.

Threonine, btw, is most easily obtained from animal sources, and from nuts.

(this chemistry is beyond my study, but the ratio of Met/Lys/Thr is easy 2:6:7 [roughly]. The same ratio in BSFL is 2:6:3. In your Flock Raiser??? Who knows, most labels don't list Threonine levels.)
View attachment 2993665
Finally, any chance the eggs are freezing? A frozen egg will definitely damage the connectives that form the membrane.

Wow, I wasn’t expecting all that sciencey stuff lol. But great information. Freezing is possible. I didn’t think of that. We have had exceptionally cold night temperatures this winter so far. I guess the easiest thing to do is try and collect eggs every day religiously and keep track of the temperature and see what happens. Why cut out the scratch grain? To be honest I’ve been giving it to my birds since I’ve had them because the friend that had got me started said to do it.
To answering some other questions:
I can definitely say the eggs have not been shaken unless of course the girls are having egg toss competitions in there at night. (Sorry I just had to)
My flock ranges from 26 week old birds to 5 year olds. (Like I said I have seen a pattern as far as certain eggs.)
As far as old eggs go. They are on the older side, probably at least a few weeks to a month but I’ve been using eggs older in the past and never have encountered this. I collect the eggs and the go right in the fridge.
They all seem happy and healthy and not molting.
Again, thanks for all the help and suggestions. Keep it coming.

 

[Fallenone05]

The thing with scratch is that its not nutritionally sound. Imagine giving kids nothing but tater chips and candy to eat and that's basically what scratch is for chickens. In moderation is fine IMHO but other people here will tell you otherwise.

I'm wondering if it's not the cold. Depending on how cold it is there, every day might not be enough to keep them from freezing and more like every couple of hours check for eggs. Oklahoma had a cold snap and it snowed a few weeks ago, froze the roads REALLY bad and they cancelled work. I gather eggs often if I'm at home and it's that cold, but one still managed to freeze solid and bust open. I guess she laid it really early and I just wasn't outside fast enough to get it.

 

[crazy4bassin]

The thing with scratch is that its not nutritionally sound. Imagine giving kids nothing but tater chips and candy to eat and that's basically what scratch is for chickens. In moderation is fine IMHO but other people here will tell you otherwise.

I'm wondering if it's not the cold. Depending on how cold it is there, every day might not be enough to keep them from freezing and more like every couple of hours check for eggs. Oklahoma had a cold snap and it snowed a few weeks ago, froze the roads REALLY bad and they cancelled work. I gather eggs often if I'm at home and it's that cold, but one still managed to freeze solid and bust open. I guess she laid it really early and I just wasn't outside fast enough to get it.

I’ve always given scratch at I guess a 4 to one ratio mixed in with the pellets. Maybe a little more during the winter because it’s how I was taught and didn’t really give it a thought otherwise. It was explained to me to give extra during the winter to help them generate more body heat. So, to be honest, I’ve kind of be going with it and everyone has seemed happy and healthy with the system thus far. Like I mentioned, I never really considered alternatives. Thanks

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I suggested cutting the scratch grains because it diminshes the total avg protein content of your feed (Scratch in the US usually 7-10% protein, All Flock/Flock Raiser usually 18-20%. BSFL usually 35-40% protein (dried) and becasue scratch in the US is usually mostly corn with some other grains - grains don't tend to be high in threonine, so even if total protein wasn't the problem, the amino acid balance of the protein they are getting could have still been a problem...

If you feed 4 parts 20% protein to 1 part 8% protein scratch, you are really feeding 17.6% protein (average). LOTS of people feed 16% layer plus scratch - at the same 4:1 ratio, they are offering just 14.4% protein (avg). Here in the US, we tend to focus on an excess of protein to compensate for offering an imbalanced amino acid profile - the higher protein compensating for lower ratios of methionine and lysine. In the EU, they offer lower protein (14-16%) supplimented with synthetic amino acids (DL-Methionine and L-Lysine, primarily) to fix the profile, making the feed more efficient, in that there is less "wasted" nutrition.

 

[crazy4bassin]

I suggested cutting the scratch grains because it diminshes the total avg protein content of your feed (Scratch in the US usually 7-10% protein, All Flock/Flock Raiser usually 18-20%. BSFL usually 35-40% protein (dried) and becasue scratch in the US is usually mostly corn with some other grains - grains don't tend to be high in threonine, so even if total protein wasn't the problem, the amino acid balance of the protein they are getting could have still been a problem...

If you feed 4 parts 20% protein to 1 part 8% protein scratch, you are really feeding 17.6% protein (average). LOTS of people feed 16% layer plus scratch - at the same 4:1 ratio, they are offering just 14.4% protein (avg). Here in the US, we tend to focus on an excess of protein to compensate for offering an imbalanced amino acid profile - the higher protein compensating for lower ratios of methionine and lysine. In the EU, they offer lower protein (14-16%) supplimented with synthetic amino acids (DL-Methionine and L-Lysine, primarily) to fix the profile, making the feed more efficient, in that there is less "wasted" nutrition.

Very cool information. Thank you. I never realized that. Much appreciated