Eggnomolies = Odd eggs

Here at Chicken Scratch Poultry I gather a lot of eggs and very often I get an egg that makes me think,  how did she do that!  This is a basket of what I call eggnomolies.  After getting quit a few of these eggs I decided to start saving them to see if there is a pattern, if a hen is doing this often, does she always lay this kind of egg.  I've found it kind of interesting, I hadn't always paid much attention but when I started watching I was a little surprised at what I found.  We have a lot of laying hens, many different breeds so it's not like I'm only gathering from a couple of hens.

These are eggs that I kept early in the spring, when the new layers just begin.  The egg to the far right is a normal sized egg to give you an idea of how small these cute little eggs are.  This is perfectly normal for a first time layer to produce tiny little eggs.  I always save them, I don't know why.   I've had these for about 4 months, they feel hollow and dried out now.

It's a little hard to tell from this photo but these eggs have a kind of side goggle curve to them.  By the time I started saving them back she was about done laying.  She laid the egg in this shape about every other day.  The egg to the far left is lighter in color which tells me she was coming to the end of her laying cycle and running out of paint.

The hen that lays these amazing eggs is a Black Copper Marans, she puts this wonderful curl on the top of every egg she lays.  The top photo is the first one she ever produced and I was so amazed I took this picture of it but the eggs kept coming after that.  I saved a few and finally just stopped saving them.  She is still laying this same egg always with this curly glob on top.  As you can see the egg color has started to lighten as she goes through the laying cycle and the eggs begin to get lighter with spots.  This is common with the Marans, once she molts she will go back to laying the beautiful dark eggs.

 

   One of our little hens lays this interesting egg everyday.  It has the same swipe pattern on every egg.  Are these just a coincidence?  I'm finding that it's not, having so many hens has given me the opportunity to see it's no coincidence and once a hen begins to lay these odd eggs this is the normal for her.

Tell us about your odd eggs.  What interesting eggs do your hens produce?

Have a great day!

Angie