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One of our bantams laid a strange egg today, it was covered in a layer of a gritty, sandy substance which took quite a lot of washing off, plus the egg itself has rough patches on it. Any ideas what could have caused this?

I've just done a quick google on "Gritty eggs" and found this

Gritty and wrinkled eggs shells are symptoms/signs of a respiratory virus called Infectious Bronchitis (IB). It is very contagious. No need to separate them. There is no cure except for vitamin/electrolytes support therapy. They can fully recover in 2 -3 weeks but will be carriers for life. It will not effect you and eating their eggs.

Keep an eye out for any other symptoms. Just watch for any other secondary infections. You may then need antibotics.

Here is the forum URL: http://www.thepoultrysite.com/forums/sh ... hp?p=35761

Don't panic! An egg takes 25 to 26 hours to form, and 20 of these are spent in the shell gland: so shell malformation is the most common problem that you see. Eggs with poorly-formed or absent shells are most common, but granulation on the outside of a shell can be caused by a number of things including even short periods without drinking water.

One or two dodgy eggs is nothing to worry about: just check that everything is as it should be in the house and run. If it persists, though... suspect fowl play

It could also be the shell from the day before... if she didn't lay the day before, or maybe even if she was trying to give you an extra egg in between, sometimes the shell forms, but isn't laid. This 'spare shell' then affixes to the next one out, but it's in tiny pieces & stuck all over the newer shell - nothing to worry about, but do keep an eye out for further problems.

Happy henning!!

i sometimes get a few dodgy looking eggs, in fact hd 2 last week on consecutive days, very thin shell, and very bumpy grainy.....
this most likely cused by lack of cacium, give extra oystershell, or egg shells( washed and cooked and mashd up ) mixed with feed.

I had been feeding mine too much veg and not enough of th e actual feed, with required stuff. son rectifed, all back to normal now