What does it mean when my hen lays a miniature egg?

[baby ruth]

It looks almost like a quail egg. Maybe a little bit bigger. It's blue and just like the other eggs but so tiny. What happened? Why did she lay a tiny egg?

thanks in advance!

 

[chrismahon]

Nothing to be alarmed about Baby Ruth. Most hens will lay these 'wind' eggs, as they are called, every now and then. Caused by not dropping a developed yolk into the oviduct, but instead a piece of other material, usually a blood spot shed from the ovary. It is of course much smaller, so it is wrapped with the white and shell to the same degree. Crack it open and have a look. We get one of these about once every couple of months from our flock of five.

 

[bigyetiman]

Nothing to worry about. When we get one we will pop it into a box of normal eggs for a friend and wait for them to phone up and say why have we got a mini egg? good fun.
Usually newbies who drop the odd one, all normal