Is my pekin bantam male or female?

[eggstatic]

My Hannah lays normal eggs except the shell always has a 'gritty' surface on the broad end, and sometimes the shell has k"Ooops, word censored!"bly warts.

 

The 'warts' are small lumps of hard shell.

 

Hannah is perfectly healthy in other ways.

 

Does anyone else have this phenomena?

[Phosphorus]

Are you giving extra calcium? Just remembered reading that the signs of too much calcium are rough egg shells - she might be overdosing Just a thought

[eggstatic]

Thank you for your reply Andrea.

 

The girls free range all day and I do not give them extra calcium.

 

They have access to crushed oyster shells and what they pick up from the soil etc.

[Snowy]

Sometimes the shells get rougher as the hen ages. But some hens always lay rough shelled eggs. Don't forget that if they were in a battery farm, only a certain percentage of the eggs laid would be sold boxed. The rest (dodgy or mis-shaped shells) would be sold for use in processed foods.

[chickencam]

My Light Sussex Bertha lays eggs with raised bits on them sometimes.

[Hen Watch]

I get this all the time too from just 1 of my girls. One of mine lays eggs like this (see bottom egg picture in the Omlet guide below).

 

http://www.omlet.co.uk/guide/guide.php?view=Chickens&cat=Eggs&sub=strange

 

I have to give extra calcium to all 4 girls as 1 is laying the occasional softie, and I suspect the hen that doesn't need it is putting the extra calcium on the outside of the egg.

[chelsea]

yes I get eggs with little raised clusters on them from my maran. I dont give any extra calcium apart from mixed grit which they help themselves too and she scratches at stones around the garden.