Grit inside egg?

[townchicks]

Yesterday a weird thing happened. I bit into a hard boiled egg, and felt a crunch. Thinking I had missed a bit of shell, I spit it out. Not shell, instead I found 3 bits of what looked like the granite grit that I give the hens. Round, gray and hard. Is it possible for grit to get into an egg? Has anyone else had this happen? The egg came from my EE, mature hen, age unknown. No rooster here.Sorry for the gross spit out egg. I had been planning to give away a few eggs, but now I worry that this will happen again.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

Interesting! In all of my years this has never happened to me. Very curious to see more responses.

 

[aart]

If it is granite grit/pebbles you're lucky you didn't break a tooth!
Did you try to crush them(not with your teeth)?

 

[townchicks]

If it is granite grit/pebbles you're lucky you didn't break a tooth!
Did you try to crush them(not with your teeth)?

Yes, just with my fingers. They were hard.

 

[aart]

Yes, just with my fingers. They were hard.

Might try tapping them with a hammer.
I'm just really curious if it's a rock or a very hard chunk of calcium.

 

[Ridgerunner]

That is weird. I think I'd send that photo and explanation to your county extension office and see if they will comment.

Sometimes our eggs can have "meat spots". That's where something inside the body cavity breaks off and enters their internal egg making factory and gets incorporated into the egg. I've never seen anything like that in the body cavity of any chicken I've butchered. Not that hard gray. To me, that is not a reasonable explanation.

I try to come up with rational explanations for what we see. This one is challenging so bear with me. I'll admit it is a stretch.

When a hen lays an egg, the egg comes out of the same vent as the poop but the internal plumbing for the egg and the poop are different. To protect the egg from the poop the egg part of that plumbing sticks out a small amount when the egg is laid, then goes back inside her body and seals that part of the internal plumbing off from the poop part. The hen usually stands up a bit to keep that part of her plumbing off of the ground or her nest so she does not bring trash back inside her body if something sticks.

My guess is that when she laid the egg the previous day she brought bits of grit back inside and those bits got incorporated in that egg. You did say that was the same color and size of your grit.

I could be wrong. That is totally unexpected.

 

[townchicks]

Might try tapping them with a hammer.
I'm just really curious if it's a rock or a very hard chunk of calcium.

You may be on to something there. It did smash easily wth a hammer, and I compared that to the grit I use, which did not smash, but rather cracked. This hen does tend to calcium deposits on the shells, and that would make more sense as to how it got inside the egg. Thanks, likely answer.

 

[aart]

You may be on to something there. It did smash easily wth a hammer, and I compared that to the grit I use, which did not smash, but rather cracked. This hen does tend to calcium deposits on the shells, and that would make more sense as to how it got inside the egg. Thanks, likely answer.

Excellent!