If you keep chickens long enough, eventually you're going to reach into a nest box, pull out an egg, and say, “What the hell happened here?”

Maybe it's tiny. Maybe it's enormous. Maybe it's wrinkled, bumpy, flat on one side, or feels like somebody forgot to install the shell. Crack one open and you might find two yolks, a blood spot, or something else you definitely weren't expecting with breakfast.

Chicken reproductive systems do some weird shit sometimes.

The good news is that one weird egg from an otherwise healthy hen usually isn't a reason to panic. Egg formation is a complicated process, and occasionally something gets a little wonky along the way. What matters more is whether the abnormal egg is a one-time oddity or something that keeps happening, especially if the hen is showing other signs that something isn't right.

So before you diagnose your hen with seventeen diseases because she laid an egg shaped like a potato, let's look at some of the weird eggs you might find and what actually causes them.

Fairy Eggs: The Tiny Little WTF Egg

Fairy eggs, sometimes called wind eggs, witch eggs, or fart eggs depending on which chicken keeper you ask, are unusually small eggs that often contain little or no yolk. They can be absolutely ridiculous sitting next to a normal-sized egg from the same flock.

They happen when something other than a normal yolk triggers the hen's reproductive tract to start the egg-making process. A small bit of reproductive tissue or other material can essentially get swept along for the ride and packaged inside membranes and a shell. Fairy eggs are more common when a hen's reproductive system is changing, including when young pullets are just getting started, but an occasional tiny egg can happen outside those times too.

If your hen is otherwise healthy and you find one tiny egg, enjoy the weird little thing. You don't need to overhaul her diet or start treating her for something because she produced one chicken-sized jelly bean.

Double Yolkers: Two for the Price of One

Crack open an unusually large egg and occasionally you'll get the jackpot: two yolks inside one shell.

Double-yolk eggs happen when two yolks are released close enough together that they travel through the reproductive tract at the same time and end up enclosed inside the same egg. They're especially common in young hens whose laying cycles are still getting themselves sorted out, although older hens can produce them too.

An occasional double yolker isn't usually something to worry about. It's also not evidence that your hen needs a nutritional intervention. Her reproductive system basically released two yolks when it normally would have released one, and both got packaged together.

And yes, you may absolutely feel cheated the next morning when you crack open a regular egg and only get one yolk.

Soft-Shelled and Shell-Less Eggs: Where the Hell Is the Shell?

Few chicken-keeping experiences are quite as strange as reaching into a nest box and grabbing an egg that squishes.

A shell-less egg has the inner and outer shell membranes but lacks the normally mineralized hard shell. A soft-shelled egg has some shell formation, but not enough to create the hard shell you'd expect. To the person who just picked one up, both can feel like a weird little water balloon.

Young pullets sometimes produce them while their reproductive systems are getting into a regular rhythm. Stress and disturbances during shell formation can contribute too. Nutrition also matters because hens need adequate calcium and vitamin D, among other nutrients, to form normal shells. Certain illnesses and problems involving the reproductive tract can cause shell abnormalities as well.

The important thing is not to see one soft egg and immediately start dumping calcium into everything your flock eats. If you're feeding a nutritionally complete layer ration and providing appropriate supplemental calcium, one weird egg from an otherwise healthy hen may simply be an oddball. If soft or shell-less eggs become a pattern, then it's time to look more closely at nutrition, age, stress, health, and which hen is laying them.

Wrinkled and Corrugated Eggs: Who Crumpled My Egg?

Sometimes the shell is perfectly hard but looks like somebody wrinkled it before it dried. You may see ripples, ridges, folds, or larger areas of corrugation across the shell.

These textures can happen when normal shell formation is disrupted. The shell gland has a pretty precise job to do, and disturbances while the egg is being formed can leave behind some strange-looking results. Age, stress, reproductive disturbances, and some diseases can all be associated with abnormal shell formation.

Again, one wrinkled egg is information, not a diagnosis. If Henrietta lays one funky egg and then goes right back to normal, I'm going to notice it and move on with my life. If she starts laying wrinkled eggs regularly, other hens suddenly start doing it too, or I'm seeing signs of illness in the flock, now I want to know why.

Bumpy Eggs and Extra Calcium Deposits

You might also find an egg covered in little bumps or rough patches that feel like tiny grains stuck to the shell. Those are areas where additional shell material was deposited during formation.

And here's where I want to kill a very persistent piece of chicken advice: a bumpy egg does not automatically mean you're feeding too much calcium.

Shell formation can be disrupted for several reasons, and an occasional egg with extra deposits isn't enough information to diagnose a nutritional problem. Don't start restricting calcium from laying hens because somebody on Facebook looked at one picture of your egg and declared that Henrietta has been hitting the oyster shell too hard.

If it happens repeatedly, then investigate. One bumpy egg? Add it to the collection of weird crap chickens occasionally produce.

Slab-Sided Eggs: Somebody Parked Too Close

Slab-sided eggs have one noticeably flattened or indented side, almost like another egg was pressed against them while the shell was forming.

And sometimes that's pretty damn close to what happened.

A slab-sided egg can form when two eggs are present in the shell gland at the same time. As shell formation occurs, one can press against the other and leave that characteristic flattened side. It's another example of the reproductive assembly line getting its timing a little screwed up.

An occasional slab-sided egg from a healthy hen usually isn't cause for alarm. If you're finding them frequently, especially along with other egg abnormalities, that's when I'd start paying closer attention to the hen and the rest of the flock.

Body-Checked Eggs: The Hen Repaired It Herself

These are cool.

Sometimes an eggshell gets damaged while the egg is still inside the hen. If that happens early enough, additional shell material can be deposited over the damaged area before the egg is laid. The finished egg may have a ridge, band, or raised area where the repair happened.

Basically, your hen laid an egg that had already been through bodywork.

Body checks can happen when an egg is damaged during shell formation, and disturbances or stress around that time may contribute. Like most of the oddities on this list, finding one occasionally is much less concerning than seeing the same abnormality over and over.

Blood Spots: No, It Doesn't Mean the Egg Was Fertilized

Let's kill this myth while we're here.

A blood spot inside an egg does not mean the egg was fertilized.

Blood spots generally happen when a tiny blood vessel ruptures around the time the yolk is released. That small amount of blood can then become incorporated into the egg as it moves through the reproductive tract.

They're not particularly appetizing to look at, but finding one doesn't mean you cracked open a developing chick. Commercial egg processing removes many eggs with visible internal defects before they ever reach the grocery store, so backyard chicken keepers may simply encounter things they've never seen in store-bought eggs.

If you don't want to eat the blood spot, scoop it out. The chicken will not be offended.

Meat Spots: Also Not a Baby Chicken

While we're ruining poultry myths, let's do this one too.

Those little brownish or reddish bits you occasionally find inside an egg can be meat spots, which are small bits of tissue incorporated into the egg during formation. They are not little chicken embryos.

I completely understand why somebody cracks an egg, sees a mysterious chunk floating beside the yolk, and immediately starts questioning breakfast. But reproductive systems are messy biological machinery. Occasionally something ends up inside the package that wasn't on the ingredient list.

Odd Shapes: Long Eggs, Round Eggs, Pointy Eggs and Egg Potatoes

Not every egg is going to emerge looking like it was selected for a grocery-store commercial. Chickens can lay unusually long eggs, nearly round eggs, pointy eggs, lumpy eggs, and occasionally something that looks less like an egg and more like a potato with ambition.

Shape abnormalities can happen when something interferes with normal egg formation or movement through the reproductive tract. They can also simply show up occasionally without becoming an ongoing problem.

If the hen is acting perfectly normal and her next eggs return to their usual shape, I don't lose sleep over it. Repeated misshapen eggs are more useful information than a single weird one.

Egg Inside an Egg: Because Apparently Chickens Can Do That

And then we arrive at one of the weirdest things a hen can produce: an egg inside another egg.

Yes. A whole damn egg.

This rare phenomenon can happen when an egg that was already traveling through the reproductive tract reverses direction and moves backward. It can then encounter another egg beginning its journey and get incorporated into the egg-forming process again. The result can be a larger egg containing another complete or partially formed egg inside it.

It's basically the poultry version of a nesting doll, except nobody asked the chicken to make one.

It's rare, it's bizarre, and if you ever find one, take pictures before you start pulling the thing apart because you're going to want proof.

Weird Shell Color and Speckles

Shell color isn't always perfectly consistent. A hen that normally lays brown or tinted eggs may occasionally produce one that's lighter, darker, more heavily pigmented, or covered in speckles that weren't there yesterday.

Our Hedemora are a perfect example. Their eggs aren't consistent when it comes to speckling. Sometimes we get beautifully speckled eggs, and sometimes we get eggs with little or no speckling at all. That's normal variation in our flock, not something that sends me running out to figure out what's wrong with everybody.

Shell color and pattern are influenced by genetics, but the amount and distribution of pigment deposited on an individual egg can vary. Even eggs from the same hen don't necessarily come out looking identical every single time.

That's why knowing what's normal for your own birds matters. A speckled egg isn't automatically abnormal, and neither is an unspeckled egg from a hen that sometimes lays speckled ones. Some breeds, landraces, and individual hens simply give you more variation than others.

Chickens aren't factories. Nature doesn't care whether all the eggs in your carton coordinate.

When Should You Actually Worry About a Weird Egg?

This is really the part I want chicken keepers to remember.

If an otherwise healthy hen lays one bizarre egg, I notice it. I might crack it open because I'm nosy. I may take a picture and send it to somebody with a message that says, “Look what this asshole laid.”

Then I watch what happens next.

What gets my attention is a pattern. If the same hen repeatedly produces soft-shelled, shell-less, badly misshapen, or otherwise abnormal eggs, I want to know why. If several hens suddenly begin producing abnormal eggs, I'm looking at things that could affect the whole flock, including feed, environmental stressors, and disease.

And if abnormal eggs show up along with a hen who is lethargic, not eating, having trouble laying, showing respiratory signs, losing condition, developing abdominal swelling, or otherwise acting sick, I'm no longer dealing with a funny egg. I'm dealing with a potentially sick chicken that deserves a closer look.

The egg is one piece of information. Look at the chicken that laid it.

Your Egg Basket Is Going to Get Weird Eventually

Chicken reproductive systems are remarkably good at producing eggs over and over again, but they're biological systems, not machines. Occasionally the timing gets screwed up. A yolk gets released at the wrong moment. Shell formation gets interrupted. An egg gets damaged and repaired. Something gets packaged that wasn't supposed to be there.

And then you walk into the coop and find the evidence.

Most of the time, an occasional weird egg is exactly that: a weird egg. Take a picture. Crack it open if you're curious. Marvel at whatever ridiculous thing your hen managed to manufacture.

Just pay attention to patterns. One odd egg from a healthy hen usually doesn't tell you much. Repeated abnormalities or a hen who isn't acting right tell you considerably more.

Because sometimes an egg is trying to tell you something.

And sometimes your chicken just laid a potato.

 

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One egg should be round
Hen apparently disagrees
Breakfast got just weird