Chickens lay weird eggs sometimes. Some are the wrong color, some have funny speckles and some are not even in the shape of an egg!
Why Theyāre Rare
Grocery store and farmerās market egg cartons are typically filled with nice, normal eggs so it is easy to assume eggs always come out perfect. For the most part, eggs are laid daily without issue but every once in a while a hen will lay a true weirdo. And of course we want to see those!
The Egg Freak Show
Nature is amazing. Even when things go awry, the results tend to be interesting. Below are some of the strange eggs our little homestead flock has laid. Iāll update this post with new pictures as long as the funky eggs keep coming!
Yes, the Hens are Healthy!
Just a quick note that all of these eggs were laid by healthy young hens that are still alive and doing very well! Most of these weird chicken eggs came during our flock’s first month of laying, when you can have some strange things left in the nest box as a hen’s body adjusts to her cycle. If the reason for the weird egg is known, Iāll list it below the image. Almost all of these weird eggs are still perfectly edible. We usually eat them and give the neighbors the pretty eggs!
An Egg wIth No Shell
This egg had no hard shell. The outside was a thin, semi-transparent membrane with an unidentified who knows what hanging off of it. It was so surprising – and come to find out, so common for pullets just coming into lay – that it got its own blog post!
We’ve noticed that we still get shell-less eggs if children who come to visit chase the chickens. The stress results in one or two of the hens casting eggs with no shells, presumably so they can run faster than the kids who endlessly want to “pet the chickens”!
Over-Calcification
The day after we got the water balloon egg with no shell, this one was laid by one of our barred rocks. It seemed her body was adjusting to the calcium output.
Huge Welsummer Egg
One of our Welsummers began laying enormous, triple-yolked eggs the week after we got her first egg. It only lasted about a month until her laying fell into a routine and the triple yolks became double yolks and finally single yolks.
Half Speckled
I guess the bottom didn’t get any speckles today!
Piexelated
This was an odd find. The shell was covered with so many tiny freckles that it looked like a blurry picture sitting right in your hand! My camera had a very hard time focusing properly on this one.
Long, cylindrical eggs
wrinkled egg
Wrinkled eggs usually mean the egg was somehow damaged while still inside the hen and then as calcium was deposited around it in the shell gland pouch, the issue was repaired. In this case, it could be related to the stress of adding new hens to the flock. These eggs are usually edible and have nothing wrong with them otherwise.
A hen with shell pigmentation issues
Our smallest Welsummer hen, Cinnamon, has egg pigmentation issues. Welsummers are supposed to lay a terra cotta colored egg covered with dark, tiny speckles that give them an earthy brown hue. Cinnamon lays eggs that are always terra cotta colored with erratic red-brown pigment splotches. We get weird chicken eggs from her often, like the lumpy, potato shaped one below.
Cinnamon’s son, Harley, is now part of our Olive Egger breeding project! Since speckling is most strongly passed on to hens from their father, we’re hoping Cinnamon’s unique speckling will make for some awesome speckled olive eggers!
We’ll keep the weird Chicken egg pictures coming so check back again!
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I absolutely LOVE all of these! Isn’t nature beautiful? Weird is WONDERFUL! I have a little crush on Cinnamon. The face egg (added eye or not) looks like he has a big ole mustache..dimple on his chin…and smoking a pipe with dribbling small billows or puffs of smoke below. Bodies (of all forms) and their creations are so cool. I’m loving all of this, Tay!
I used to “blow the guts out” of eggs, decorate them, and then pull some fishing line through with a piece of a toothpick tied to it to make into ornaments. It was a babysitting craft I came up with a bazillion years ago. I forgot all about it until now….but absolutely need to add it to the kiddo-craft to do list.
Each of these are a work of art on their own…no additional decoration needed! I think a blog post doing this is 100% necessary. Easter-schmeester…. think of how beautiful these would be as every day decor! An egg tree, a dish filled in the kitchen, or a handmade nest with a handful nestled on a table…or arranged into a wreath..the options are endless with these beauties, too gorgeous to toss away!
I am so happy to have connected with you again. I feel some serious fun in our future š
~Jacki
p.s. We are in TX now too!
Hey Jackie, I am obsessed with different color eggs too. I collect them and end up painting them after awhile. I have never tried mailing one but if you email, I could try. To make y’alls Xmas tree Eggstra special. kkicons@gmail.com šI love the fact that so many of Tay’s articles originate from the same part of TX our farm is in. Very challenging to keep them here imo.