Patchy
Posted: Fri 11 January, 2008 Filed under: Animals, Domestic 1 Comment »One thing I’ve noticed recently with our hens is that one of them is laying eggs with patches on them, either of a different colour, or a kind of gritty powder on them. I’m not sure what it means, but the books and sites I’ve looked at don’t mention it as anything bad, so I’m not too concerned.
It’s still odd though – so if anyone here does know what’s causing it, I’d be a lot happier…
Nice speckled egg. Which breed?
You often find patches of unfinsihed shell with eggs from young hens, or old hens, while their egg-systems either settle down or give up. It’s nothing to worry about.
Some shells are colour-all-the-way-through (eg cream legbar’s blue eggs) while some are pale brown underneath with the dark brown or speckles apparently ‘sprayed on’ after (as you’ll find if you ever rub them too vigorously to get them clean).
If several hens are using a nestbox, the feet of one often rub bits of colour off the shells of others.
We always feed just oyster shell rather than grit and oyster shell as we’ve found over the years that it produces much better egg shells. Our hens always seem to be healthier and live longer than other people’s too, and I don’t think that’s just coincidence.