My eco solution to rat problems

[susanb]

Our bluebelle has started laying eggs with a kind of helter-skelter spiral right from one end to the other. Its a bit lumpy and slightly raised - perhaps about a millimetre up and a millimetre across. Starts at one end and spirals perfectly to the other where it ends.

 

We have just had a week with them on flubenvet and poultry spice with cod liver oil......could this spiral be the result of too much calcium in her diet?

 

Its quite pretty - so not complaining (although at first I did think it looked like a big worm curled up on the shell......so glad it was not that )

 

Any ideas?

[Chucky Mama]

If it is a spiral in the egg once cracked next to the yolk it will be a CHALAZA

 

Ropey strands of egg white which anchor the yolk in place in the center of the thick white. They are neither imperfections nor beginning embryos.

 

The more prominent the chalazae, the fresher the egg. Chalazae do not interfere with the cooking or beating of the white and need not be removed, although some cooks like to strain them from stirred

Does look quite like a corkscrewey worm.

[susanb]

no....its on the outside.... it is part of the shell. She always used to have tiny grooves in the shell...but now there is this sort of line spiralling along!

[Egluntyne]

Can we see a picture?

[Simon Charter]

Dear Susan, Spirals in eggs have been known about for sometime . The egg form has a lawfulness inherent in it and can be drawn using projective geometry, purely from  the simple play of points lines and planes and the spiral is within the construction. It occurs in many other natural forms apart from birds eggs, eg. fir cones, plant buds, sea urchins, heart ventricles  and several other animal organs.

A mathematician and researcher of natural form Lawrence Edwards has done the most work on this but his work has been corroborated by others, He found spirals ion in duck eggs which can often be seen when they are blown and have a light shone through them ( a torch light on a mobile works well). I had looked for this in hens eggs for many years , then a month or so back saw a convincing but faint marking then a week ago a friend brought me a wonderful egg with a single line in the shell , beautifully spiralling between the ends . Initially I was convinced it was drawn on by my friend  but close examination showed it was indeed part of the structure of the hard shell. The geometry is clearly explained by Lawrence in his book the Vortex  of Life. and there is a website vortexoflife.org.uk  His colleague Graham Calderwood  has set up a website budworkshop.co.uk which has an interactive capacity for assessing bud and other egg shapes.