Hen house delivers odd eggs
The Golden Comet laid something from out of this world well at least seemingly.
Last week the local hen laid not golden eggs, but eggs with rigid shells similar in appearance to walnuts.
Frankie McDowell was perplexed to say the least to see the wrinkled shells from her Golden Comet chicken's eggs. The hen, who is a little over a year old, was the only in the hen house to lay the textured eggs, which had their mysterious appearance for about five days.
"They stayed rigid for about a week, but after about a week and a half (she resumed delivering) smooth ones but they're still rough," McDowell said. "I showed them to everyone over Thanksgiving and no one had seen anything like it."
Crittenden County Ag Extension Agent Tom Moore suggested it could be something in the bird's diet that caused the abnormal shell texture.
"Occasionally hens will lay eggs that don't have the hard shell, they'll lay eggs with just the thin inner lining, which means they're not getting enough calcium," Moore said.
Moore suggested contacting the University of Kentucky's poultry expert, Dr. Anthony Pescatore.
Come to find out, the hen likely had infectious bronchitis, a viral disease that affects poultry.
The disease depletes the amount of salt and water used in the formation of the egg's outer shell membrane.
"If the salts and water are not added, then membranes are wrinkled and, therefore, the shell that is deposited around it will also be wrinkled," explains Dr. Austin Cantor, a UK poultry and nutrition expert. "This is what happens when a hen has infectious bronchitis."
Cantor said it is possible that the hen had a mild case of the disease and resumed laying normal eggs upon recovery.
The viral disease is the most likely cause of the walnut-like coating on Golden Comet's eggs; however, Cantor said other physiological abnormalities other than disease are also possible.