My ISA Brown laid a super tiny egg! Why?

[ChickenShepherd_6116]

I have two 4yo ISA Brown hens who have always laid large brown eggs (usually with speckles), but today I found a super small egg that I think was laid by one of my ISA Brown hens (I'm not sure which one, but they are my only brown egg layers). to give you guys a visual of the size, I will post a picture of the egg next to an egg from my Speckled Sussex hen who lays eggs a little tinier than my ISA eggs usually are. (I don't have any other ISA Brown eggs to take a picture of today) When I cracked it open i noticed the shell was stronger than it usually is. My ISA's usually have pretty weak shells. They have access to food and calcium 24/7 and my younger hens lay much stronger shells.

Should I be concerned about this egg or is it normal on occasions?

 

[BigBlueHen53]

At age 4, your ISA brown is reaching the end of her productive age. That's a little large for a "fairy" egg, but given what was inside it, I think that's what it was. We see these in very young or in older hens. They can be about the size of a quarter or even smaller. Yours is a little on the large size. Also called a rooster egg, wind egg or fart egg, it occurs when a small bit of yolk or other material breaks loose high up in the reproductive tract and travels down to be treated like a regular egg, being coated with shell material and expelled just like a regular egg. Usually nothing to worry about. She just may be done laying. Or not. Time will tell. If you get any more you can just hang on to it, it will dry out and make a little keepsake.

 

[ChickenShepherd_6116]

At age 4, your ISA brown is reaching the end of her productive age. That's a little large for a "fairy" egg, but given what was inside it, I think that's what it was. We see these in very young or in older hens. They can be about the size of a quarter or even smaller. Yours is a little on the large size. Also called a rooster egg, wind egg or fart egg, it occurs when a small bit of yolk or other material breaks loose high up in the reproductive tract and travels down to be treated like a regular egg, being coated with shell material and expelled just like a regular egg. Usually nothing to worry about. She just may be done laying. Or not. Time will tell. If you get any more you can just hang on to it, it will dry out and make a little keepsake.

That makes a lot of sense, thank you!

 

[Ridgerunner]

The internal egg making factory and the entire egg laying process are pretty complex, a lot of different parts. Any pullet or hen can have a glitch at any time. To me it is kind of surprising that so many get it right so often.

As long as it is fairly rare I don't worry about those glitches. If it becomes a regular occurrence then I look into it.

These things are more common when a pullet is just starting to lay or when an old hen is getting near the end of her laying, but it can happen at any time.

Thicker shells on small eggs or thinner shells on unusually large eggs like a double yolker are also fairly common. The hen makes a certain amount of shell material in a day. If the egg is smaller it goes on thicker. One a larger egg it is thinner.