

Wrinkly Eggs
Most likely, the wrinkly egg is like the wrinkles on my face, it’s an age thing!!!
Have any of your rescue girls given you a wrinkly egg?
My girls on the very odd occasion gift me with a wrinkly one, so likely your girls will too at some point. Could be just one or two little wrinkles like the egg on the left or many wrinkles like the one on the right (a normal egg in the middle for comparison).
If you know your hens seem healthy, then the most likely reason for a wrinkly egg is because older hens can sometimes have thinner egg whites, which makes it harder for the shell to build around it, therefore the wrinkly appearance. I’ve got hens still clucking around from my first big rescue in April 2017, so they would be getting onto 5 years old now. . . however a hen of any age can lay a wrinkly egg.
If you’ve noticed a hen is unwell (coughing, sneezing, rattling, watery eyes or breathing difficulties) then your hen may have something like Infectious Bronchitis, which can produce wrinkly eggs (or no egg production). Most hens are vaccinated against it as chicks but you never know! The virus makes the albumen watery so the same things happens as does for the older girls (as mentioned above). If you sick hen recovers she may still give you wrinkly eggs because of the lesions from the infection. But the eggs are still googy egg good.
The last reason could be their diet and a Copper Deficiency. While the purpose of Coppper is not known, we do know it is important in the formation of the egg shell membrane. So check what you’re feeding your hens and make sure there is some copper in the nutrients they receive. A good all round quality feed should have all your hen needs (besides greens and cuddles!).
As long as your hens are healthy, they have clean food, water & bedding, no coughing, wheezing, then you’ve nothing to worry about.
They don’t look great however they can still be cooked if that’s what you want to do, or we feed them back to our hens, they appreciate the protein hit!!
Eggstraordinary Weekly Digest
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