A Mysteriously Small Egg
Our chicken, Inky, laid a teensy, tiny brown egg that is flecked with chocolate brown. The baby egg, as I’ve taken to calling it, is about one-quarter the size of her normal eggs, which are brown, but not speckled. I have no idea why this happened. She is eating the same food, drinking the same water, nothing has changed.
She’s back to laying normal size eggs. Apparently the baby egg was a one off.
May 6, 2010
Chickens are so strange. Funny she would lay one so small if she is a regular layer. Never had a small egg but I had a 91g egg once… poor chicken!
May 6th, 2010 at 10:43 amStrange! I’d be curious to see what the yolk ratio was like inside!
May 6th, 2010 at 10:53 amWe occasionally get a small egg from one of our chickens. I cracked open the last two we got, and they had no yolk. I don’t know why it happens, either. One day we got a HUGE egg. The yolk was at least 2 1/2 inches across. Chickens are strange.
May 6th, 2010 at 1:20 pmI had the same thing happen last week with one of my Easter Egger hens, and I opened it to discover it was missing a yolk. Chicken misfire, perhaps?
May 6th, 2010 at 2:46 pmThe tiny eggs that have no yolks are affectionately called “fart eggs”, I’ve gotten a couple in the past
They are totaly edible – if you don’t mind eating something called a fart egg, hahahaha
May 6th, 2010 at 8:34 pmThat’s a cute little egg!
May 7th, 2010 at 10:09 am.-= Sunshine+Design´s last blog ..Mother’s Day card =-.
Maybe she was impersonating a quail
May 7th, 2010 at 10:50 amYour hen has mites! The brown spots are blood from when the mites are crushed.
You need to treat her with puppy or kitten flea powder and also treat the nesting boxes and the roost poles.
May 7th, 2010 at 3:36 pmCongrats on getting a “fart egg” (or “wind egg”). We’ve only gotten 1 in 2 years of having chickens.
The brown spots are not from mites but are just variations in pigments. There are no mites present in the oviduct to “crush” during the egg-laying process. Some of my hens lay mottled eggs from time to time and they don’t have mites – we check them regularly to be sure. Our black star used to lay eggs with purple mottling and our cochin lays brown eggs with brown mottling. Each bird’s eggs are unique in shape, size, coloring, and mottling pattern. The joy of hens!
May 8th, 2010 at 10:08 am.-= Jenn A´s last blog ..Cuban sandwiches =-.
I don’t have chickens but I could guess that if that tiny egg were fertalized it would have been the runt of the “litter.”
GREAT WEBSITE!
May 8th, 2010 at 1:26 pmI occasionally get one of these tiny eggs, – don’t think it’s anything to worry about, just one of those odd things chickens do!
May 8th, 2010 at 1:57 pm.-= kathy doyle´s last blog ..Fruit Tree Blossom =-.
One of my chickens once laid an egg like that, and there was no yolk inside! weird!
May 9th, 2010 at 11:49 pmpeace-
Jayne
Very odd. Never had chickens, so I don’t know what would cause that. I guess we all have off days, even chickens.
May 10th, 2010 at 8:15 am.-= Window On The Prairie´s last blog ..Planting Soybeans =-.
Chickens never fail to entertain! We haven’t gotten a small egg, but we did just get our first double yolker! Glad she’s back to normal eggs!
May 10th, 2010 at 11:58 amBeing a Newbie, I am always searching online for posts that can guide me. Thank you
May 22nd, 2010 at 8:27 amHelp..one of my chickens has now laid 4 Wind eggs 4 days running.She is 3 years old and laid normal eggs until now.
June 3rd, 2010 at 10:26 amSandra–Oh dear, Inky only ever laid the one. Maybe as chickens age they begin to lay more of these little eggs? I wish I had an answer, but I don’t. Good luck! Perhaps call a veterinarian?
June 3rd, 2010 at 10:50 amThanks,Pippins for the pot…no only joking,but it may encourage her to get laying properly again
They do look very cute,I may blow them and decorate them for Easter 
It seems young chickens can lay them and older ones too..will let you know what happens. Thanks for your reply Sandra
June 3rd, 2010 at 2:16 pmwe have had three small eggs in the last week from our reagular layers our chickens are a year old our smallest egg at 34 grams and the largest at 99 grams .
July 6th, 2010 at 11:38 amHi Valerie,Do the eggs have yolks? One of my Girls laid 4 ‘wind’ eggs but they are Quails eggs sized and have no yolks. They are back to normal laying but as they are now 3 and a half I only get 1 egg a day from the 3 of them
I do miss those huge double yolkers.Hope yours go back to laying properly 
Anyone know how long chickens lay for?
July 6th, 2010 at 11:50 amthey did have yolks i was surprised they were tiny I should have got a pic. but since she has laid three i may get another chance for a pic .
July 6th, 2010 at 7:24 pmHi, now i thought that little egg was from the same chicken! (i have 7, so maybe not!) i get a small yokeless egg every other day, oh how sarah jessica parker would relish in the abunbance of such a supply of “point free” eggs.
July 18th, 2010 at 5:01 pmI have about 65 hens, and after the winter months we get a few of these yolkless little eggs. It is always when they start laying again or when they first start to lay. It happens about as often as I get a double yolk egg, so maybe three times a year. As for the speckles, I have two chickens who lay speckled eggs. They always have from the first time they started laying eggs. I check frequently for mites, and I haven’t seen a problem. Also, mites being a condition that will spread like wildfire throughout a flock, I would expect all of my chickens to be infected. Just a thought on the speckles.
May 3rd, 2011 at 10:12 amNatalie–Thanks for your comment on the mites. I’ve carefully checked our girls and I do not think they have mites. I clean their bedding out where they sleep at least once a week and they have plenty of opportunities to dust their feathers…they seem happy and healthy to me. One of our chickens lays double yolks all the time. I kind of feel bad for her because the eggs are so HUGE!
May 11th, 2011 at 2:35 pmEvery now and again hens will lay these small eggs.
Any item that goes through their ova duct will end up with a shell on it. There could have been a bit of excess fluid or small mass there and it got a shell.
If it is like one of my girls it will happen again but not too often.
Take Care
June 14th, 2011 at 7:55 amWe only started keeping chooks a couple of months ago and all 4 hens (different breeds) laid perfectly normal eggs initially.
One of the banties went off lay for a couple of weeks then two weeks ago started to lay tiny eggs which are yolks only. She doesn’t lay as often as when she was laying normal eggs either – maybe just 4 in the last fortnight. The latest one, this morning is the size of a grape.
She seems healthy & happy though and eats the same as the others. I’m concerned she has an internal problem as it’s gone on for a while.
June 17th, 2011 at 5:19 amI have and appenzeller spitzhauben hen that has only laid tiny quail eggs size eggs. they are suppose to have large eggs from what I hear, so what would cause this? God bless you
July 4th, 2011 at 9:45 pmI just found a grape size egg my hen layed.They were a couple weeks off also…I couldn’t believe it! I asked my mom if would make a mini chicken Ha. I am interested to know whats causing our banties to produce these also.
July 5th, 2011 at 4:02 pmI have a chicken that is two years old who laid one of these little eggs yesterday. I figured it did not have a yolk because I don’t think there is room for one. If an egg does not have a yolk, it will not hatch. I guess everyone has an “off” day now and then. I think she may be getting tired. At least she tried!
February 9th, 2012 at 4:49 am