Ok, whats the deal here guys? Ive been raising chickens (Red sexlinks) for a year now. Recently, egg size has gone up big time. The eggs will not fit in an extra large egg carton. This is up from the normal extra large size. I figured all the grubs Ive been handing them had somthing to do with this, maybe. The hens are all veterens, had them for a year. This morning, mixed into the dozen extra extra large eggs was one the size of a large marble. It a brown egg, definety one of the sexlinks- don't think prowling chickadee. But its really small. really really really small. Is this normal?? or even heard of?

-- Kevin in NC (Vantravlrs@aol.com), March 18, 2002

Answers

Certainly heard of - even normal - but not strictly speaking usual. They've got the production line running, it's sometimes hard to adjust, but this time there was a shortage of raw material - possibly even no real egg (yolk), but the system picked up on something, ran it through (adding white, then cloaking it in shell) just the same. You can expect to see more in a lifetime of keeping poultry, but not very often. It's just an eggless day that didn't quite work.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), March 18, 2002.

Normal .I have had those mini eggs sevral times and some that looked like an emu egg .As your hens get older you will see that there egg number drops BUT the egg are much larger than when thay were young.

-- Vince R. (Dove@epix.net), March 18, 2002.

I mostly have Barred Rocks, I got one of those "robin-sized" eggs just a few days ago. It has happened before, they'll get bigger. :^)

-- Sharon (chessyemailaddy@notreal.com), March 18, 2002.

I have gotten about 5 of those in the last year. None of them have yolks, or barely a trace of one. I suppose they are great for all those people that are on a diet and dont eat the best part - the yolk.

-- Chenoa (ganter@primus.ca), March 18, 2002.

Yep, to the above answers. I get these kind occaisionaly too, they usually have no yolk or just a smidgen of one.

I saw an egg once a chicken farmer showed me. It was about the size of an emu's egg. The farmer said it was an egg within an egg and that the hen died laying it.

We had the Red Sex Links a couple of years ago and we too had eggs so huge they would not fit in the carton.

-- LBD, Maryland (lavenderbluedilly@hotmail.com), March 18, 2002.

I have had my 20 Golden Comets and five Auracanas for one year this month and the egg size has gotten bigger. But about a month ago we had two of those tiny little eggs! Also, I lost my first chicken on Thursday. One of the Golden Comets was dead for no apparent reason. No bloody spots, No predators.

-- Suzy in Bama (slgt@yahoo.com), March 18, 2002.

for me those tiny eggs are usually a pullets first efforts!! Do you have any young birds just begining to lay?? In a mixed age flock it is sometimes hard to know just who laid what....

-- Bee White (bee@hereintown.net), March 18, 2002.

In 4 years I've had two of those marble sized eggs. The second one was just last week. I cracked it open just to see and it looked perfect, just small. The first marble sized egg was jelly-thick inside. Had to scoop the white and yolk out with the tip of a spoon. We didn't eat either of the marble sized eggs so I don't know if they would be good for eating. I've also had a couple of shell-less eggs, elongated eggs, almost perfectly round eggs and extra large sized eggs but no eggs without yolks and no double yolked eggs. At least not yet. Isn't it fun?

-- cindy palmer (jandcpalmer@sierratel.com), March 18, 2002.

With all the talk about colesteral the Chickens are afraid they might be driven out of business by all the bad publicity so they are just trying to come up with a new product. While they are at it they are trying to fix the high fat problem also.Thats why they are so small. Who said chickens don't have brains!

-- Corky Wolf (corkywolf@hotmail.net), March 18, 2002.

Whenever we get one of those the kids usually take it to school for show and tell. It usually doesn't make it back home from school. It either gets broke or gave away.

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), March 18, 2002.

Not to change the topic too much, but I've got some hens not much bigger than banties. They lay very small eggs. BUT, inside they're almost all yolk with very little whites. Great for bacon and eggs...more room in the frypan for extras.

Russ

-- (imashortguy@hotmail.com), March 19, 2002.

A man I know who breeds Old English game chickens told me that he has on a couple of occasions put those tiny eggs in the incubator and they hatched, but the chicks never made it. He seemed sincere, and I guess it is certainly possible, though I think seeing a chick that tiny would be sort of disturbing.

-- Jeff (lorianandjeff@aol.com), March 19, 2002.

I found one of those tiny eggs once. Thought I was seeing things!

-- PJC (zpjc5_@hotmail.com), March 19, 2002.

Hey, I was shocked when I found a small marble sized, perfectly round, egg in the nest box! But it didn't seem to have any effect on my hens. In fact, chickens probably pull stunts like that to see our surprise. chickens like to have fun too!

-- Lawren (happy6@terragon.com), March 22, 2002.