[plumseverywhere]

A regular customer just called by for a dozen eggs and said that his wife asked him to mention that the last lot had something strange going on.
They said that the whites had looked 'odd'. Not as clear as usual and that they'd had to throw them away.
I've just broken an egg infront of him to see how that looked and he said it was fine, he's insisting on still buying from me but has promised to tell me if anything else looks weird.
we had eggs last night and I didn't notice anything odd. Should I be worried?
They were wormed with flube in April and are sort of free ranging (ie. behind an electric fence that they totally ignore/fly over/tunnel beneath  and wander about eating what they want)
TIA
Lisa

[Sylvia]

Perhaps his glasses needed cleaning   One of my customers insisted that she broke an egg and there was a fully developed chick in it   but, as my eggs are picked up at least twice daily and kept cool, I wonder.Also, I don't sell eggs that are more than a few days old. She told me she keeps her eggs on top of her fridge freezer and probably the warmth incubated the egg   (just the one??)
Unfortunately she didn't keep it as she was so upset. I replaced the ONE egg

[chrismahon]

Think they call them 'meat lumps' Plumbseverywhere. Commercial eggs are screened for them and they look like a lumpy white, not smooth. You get a similar effect if the egg has been frozen, like in very cold weather and not collected often enough. We had one last year which a customer brought round, but in that case the yolk was broken and lumpy as well. quite rare but some hens are predisposed to them. Think it can get worse with worms and in extreme cases you can get worms in the eggs I've heard.

[plumseverywhere]

Thank you for the replies 


Worms in the eggs?! This is the first time we've ever had a customer find something wrong with the eggs so I'm quite worried. Do you think I should reworm? can it do any harm to worm again so soon?
I should have asked him to bring me the shell of any more eggs he finds with the same problem (IF he does) so that I can at least work out which hen it is (we have different coloured layers so could work it out by process of elimination!)

[chrismahon]

You don't need to reworm so soon Plumbseverywhere, but worth bearing in mind. I would try to find out which one it is if it ever happens again. Fact of life with small producer eggs. There are benefits though. One chap asked if ours were fertile, which they are, because a friend of his wanted a new cockerel and she would hatch from them. Wonder what a Buff Orpington crossed with a Gold Laced Wyandotte looks like?

[Brijjy]

One of my old Plymouth Rock type hens lays eggs with funny whites. Part of the white is thicker and cloudy, the other part is runny and clear. I've put it down to her age as none of the other hens eggs are like it. Luckily I know what her eggs look like so I don't sell them. We eat them instead. They taste exactly the same as all the rest though.

[plumseverywhere]

I think a cross between those two would be beautiful Chrismahon!


Brijjy, you may have hit upon something there - I have a black rock that is about 5 years old and still laying! I wonder if its her eggs, she's still once a day in the summer.
I know its not the green egg layers as a)he would have spotted it was the rarer eggs and b) I've not found a green egg for 3 weeks since we went on holiday and a broody hen took over the roost in our absence, grrrrr.

[Mel]

Regards those egg whites,were they cloudy at all? One of my neighbours pointed this out to me and they did not know it was because they are so fresh!

[plumseverywhere]

he said they were cloudy but because this couple have bought eggs from us for 3 years now I assumed something must have changed - the freshness issue popped up when I googled it so it had crossed my mind 

[Mel]

Plums,
I would print it off and give it to them,I had to do this with the neighbour whom was insistent that they were off!She really did not believe she had never seen an egg That fresh before!

[northfifeduckling]

it may have to do with their diet (the birds, that is  ). I had different looking whites every now and then, the occasional one having a greenish or blueish tint to it.  Tell them not to keep them on top of the fridge, for haeavens' sake  . Cold and warmth obviously change the texture!
I do get either a dark red or greyish lump sometimes, none of my friends complained other than when it was obviously a large blood spot then replaced that egg for them