Metallic tasting eggs.

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susieanna

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Hello everyone. I am new to the forum.
I have a hen that has started to lay metallic tasting eggs!
She lives with 5 other hens and a cockerel. The other hen's eggs that are laying are fine.
They free range most days.
Has anyone experienced this?
 
Hi Susieanna, and welcome to the forum.
I haven't a clue why your hen is laying metallic-tasting eggs, but I expect someone will be along soon with the answer and I shall be interested to learn why!
What sort of hen is she, how old, and is there anything in your garden which she might eat that would account for this strange happening? Did it start suddenly, or has it come on gradually? Does she appear to be in good health in herself? How frequently does she lay? Are her eggs normal apart from the taste? how can you be sure it's her egg and not somebody else's?
 
Hi Thanks for your interest. She is a silkie, about 2 years old. It started suddenly. She is in fine health. She lays about 3 to 4 eggs a week.
She loves greens more so than the others. So maybe it could be something she has taken a like to. Though have no idea what.
 
There is a lot of iron in greens, but I doubt that's it ! She may be eating something different to the others or her system is different to the others. Some of ours take condensation off the fence wire. Perhaps thats the source -zinc. Have you put ACV in a zinc plated drinker?

Trap nesting or careful obsevation or isolation are the methods to confirm it's her egg.
 
Thanks I know its her egg as she is the only Silkie. Drinker is plastic and they all use it. Think as you say must be something that she is eating.
Will give it a week or two and hope it passes.
 
your not the only one i have had this and it put me of eating eggs for a long time and its nothing to do with your birds or the eggs but for the life of me i cant remember what it is :-)05 :-)05 :-)05 i will post back as soon as i remember though i even asked my denists about it .
 
Wild garlic, kitchen garlic, onions can give eggs an odd taste, some herbs can also flavour eggs rather strongly! :D
 
Please do let me know. It's not the saucepan the eggs were cooked in if thats what you are thinking cause that did cross my mind as well.
Its really interesting! probably something simple. Been throwing her eggs as enough to put you off eating them again as you say!! Will try them again in a week or so.
 
i have been reading up on it and theres a lot of posts saying about sulphur but i dont remember hearing that mentioned as i really thought it was to do with a broken tooth and filling i had at the time it was about 3 years ago this happened .
 
Ahh now understand dentist ref. Well I kept quiet after tasting one to see if my husband would notice and he did.
So not teeth. What causes sulphur apart from really old eggs?
 
Just to let anyone who is interested know my chicken no longer has metallic tasting eggs! So can only think it was something she ate!
 
Hi

new to the forum.

I have three browns, all very healthy and laying 5+ weekly, now 20 months old.
We have have metallic tasting eggs around 50% of the time. we cannot tell if it is one or all the hens. Sometimes the eggs are fine. We can bake with them, and meringues are always fine. But sometimes the cooked eggs are quite inedible (especially the yolks.) and custard or ice cream can be bad.

I have looked at a variety of forums (the problem is not as rare as some suggest) and have never found an answer, although there are a lot of theories. Where possible I have acted on the ideas but nothing has changed.

They are in a large run and eat layers pellets. They are free to roam the garden for a time several days a week, and they get kitchen scraps with no fishy animal or oniony content. They only seem to eat grass, dandelions and grubs they scratch from the garden.

I tried to be scientific last year: I witheld scraps; being allowed out; just gave pellets, each for 2 weeks. i tried different manufacturer's pellets which seemed to work at first but soon the problem returned. It is either something present in ALL layers pellets (which I strongly doubt) or in the chickens. Which is a shame as we are mostly vegetarian ;)

The only thing I haven't tried is to alter the water supply, which is tap water in plastic feeders (some concern re zinc feeders) which are frequently washed down and refilled.

I could try getting de-ionised water and restricting them to this for a while (stagnant rainwater from our butts may be a source of infection, I am informed.)

I will post any result.

The whole thing has been very disappointing, and given the 20 odd eggs a week, very frustrating!
 
It could be the chlorine in the water DrLemur because your water is changed too often from the tap and the Chlorine levels in it are high. Typically they are 4 ppm, swimmimg baths are 6 ppm so I doesn't take much of a rise to taste it. In fresh eggs the white contains a lot of water and it may be the chicken's system doesn't take out the active Chlorine or perhaps concentrates it. Our drinkers are refilled about every 4 days from water butts. It know takes 3 days for the Chlorine to come out of the water to then be used for watering veg without killing the taste. So I would say try the opposite. Let the water stand vented to air for several days before giving it to them. All ours are watered from butts without any problem, taste or health wise. They are all covered to keep wild bird poo out of course.
 
Another way to get the chlorine out quickly is to turn the tap on full, and if it is an outside tap have the water container as far as possible from the tap. The force will make the water bubble which helps to dire the chlorine off in gas form - you can smell it. We used to do this when we lived in Hay-on-Wye - if it rained the chlorine level was bumped up as water was taken from the river. I wouldn't use de-ionised or distilled water ( which isn't very good for humans). If you can stand the expense maybe using "spring water" would allow you to see whther it's the water - but read the contents label as they vary in their chemical composition.
 
Oops, second sentence should read "DRIVE the chlorine off". and at the end "whether it's the water".
 
How long does it take for changes in diet/water etc to affect the egg? I was told that it would be 4 weeks before the change to organic pellets would have effect - the original feed had E number colourant and no guarantee that the soya protein was GM free which is why we've changed.
 
Takes less than a week to construct an egg and a day for stuff to pass through the digestive system. So I would say a week for any change to affect the egg totally.
 
Thanks for the ideas.

I have had them on rainwater for 2 weeks. egg no better. I still feel like washing mouth out an hour later.

Oddly, they don't like the rainwater, perhaps as it has stood for a while. Perhaps algae. Also shells missing from 1/2 the eggs. Back to tap...

I leave 2 large water feeders, that takes them 7-10 days to get through 5 on hot days.

ho hum..

Ill try mineral water, I wonder if they prefer sparkling or still ;-D
If thats no different I will have excluded everything in their diet. The only other test would be to have some different birds under the same conditions.

How long do they live... ?
 
Hi DrLemur. It was worth a try as it removes another variable. Hybrids live about 3 years domestically (none of ours have got past three years), only 18 months commercially as they are culled before the first moult and replaced. Pedigrees over 5 years typically, some less some far more.
 
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