What is this Mutant Egg?

in #homesteading7 years ago
On Monday I found a soft-shelled egg in my coop! What is this craziness??

Since I've already done a lot of research, I knew what it was and why it happened. BUT, I figured it would be great to share with you guys here!

This is, yes, it's an egg. It's a shell-less egg, often called a soft egg, or rubber egg. This is something that happens for a couple reasons, usually it happens when the hen is just first starting to lay. Other reasons this happens is because the chicken may not have enough calcium in their diet, or it can even be signs of some sort of illness. Wait, don't freak out though, it is more likely they're lacking calcium in their diet.

My chickens are just starting to lay, so that's the reason that I keep finding soft shelled eggs. I made sure and added an oyster shell supplement in their coop, in a separate dish, to make sure they could get the calcium they need.

Of course I poked the crap out of it. This was the first soft egg that I have ever touched!

Then I noticed something inside...

AND I DECIDED TO DISSECT IT!

SO, there was a soft egg, WITHIN a soft egg! How crazy is that?

I have got a few soft shelled eggs since. Everyone should be laying by the end of this month... I am sure almost every single chicken that has started laying has laid at least one soft shell egg. Totally weird.


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So cool and weird! I have had chickens for a long time, I have raised hundreds of them, and I have only ever had one shell less egg!? My girls eat a lot of dirt and grit from the ground, I wonder if the calcium is in a more useable form when in that finer stage than in chunky oyster shell form? Are all your hens laying the soft shell or just one? What breed? Thanks for sharing, upvoted and resteemed

On my research it said that oyster shell is the easiest form.

Could be many reasons why mine have been laying many, or could be many reasons why maybe you simply just hadn't found yours. Who can say exactly? :)

I have many different breeds and 5 different age groups. I feed organic feed.

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We had out of town company for the last week+ so I've been pretty sparse here. But they left yesterday so I have to figure out how to get back into my routine.

I haven't heard anything back from that thing you showed me. Maybe I should try submitting again.

Wow, that's amazing, good for you, man!

Maybe there's a chicken inside your chicken...?!

super cool! I've never had one like that. Only with calcium crusties on the outside. Don't know what that's all about....

It's nothing serious. Just an overlay of extra calcium. :)

oh good! I crush up the old egg shells and feed that to them with my kitchen slop. Never have used the oyster shell, at least not for a year or so.

When I was doing my research for my oyster Shell post the other week, it said that egg shells aren't enough. shrug, some people do fine with them, I guess some don't! Haha

I have a soft spot in my heart, yuk yuk, for the shell-less eggs. There is something really odd about them and I end up staring at the things for long periods of time. That and rolling them in my hands for the feel. I only get them with young hens or VERY rarely from the older hens.

Now, what would be REALLY interesting is if one of those softies was fertilized. You could put it in the incubator and see if it would grow. Could even put the egg in a plastic easter egg.

I wonder how much the shell aids in heat regulation and stuff like that... hmmmm!

Yeah I don't really enjoy getting them. Haven't really played with the other ones I've gotten cause they seem to be laying them on the poop deck. Must surprise them when they wake up on the roost or something. Lol

They do feel really cool!

I always hated going into the coop to get the eggs. Some of them were all poopy and sometimes the rooster would chase me around!

Thankfully mine seem to be generally clean! Haha. I find a lot of the soft eggs on my poop deck area. They must surprise them in the early morning... haha

I've had these from time to time - but never dissected one!

Love the videos.

I only dissected because of the weird thing inside that seemed solid! So crazy! Thanks for liking the videos. I'm no videographer ... but I hope I do an OK job. Haha

Yeah, those soft eggs are kinda freaky, aren't they? :-)

This one was by far the coolest. Since it had that green tint from the Easter Egger lol. And then a second squishy egg inside!

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Cool!
Bizarre, but very cool!

Right?! That double egg one was crazy!

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