Strange tasting first eggs

After waiting so long for our first eggs we were disappointed to find they had a strange taste. The first two we had poached in a toasted granary bread sandwich for our breakfast. There was a musty, mouldy taste. I thought it must be the bread and threw the loaf away, even though I had only bought it the day before.

A few days later we had two poached again for breakfast but in a white toasted sandwich. There was the same musty, mouldy taste.

I started to research if anyone else had come across this or had any ideas what could be causing it.

I give the girls unlimited access to layers pellets and grit and water of course. I give them a small handful of scratch treat (a mix of sunflower hearts, corn and dried meal worms) between four of them,  first thing in the morning and last thing in the afternoon. Mid morning and mid afternoon I take a treat of a small amount of fruit or veg, alternating between apple, melon, grapes, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, greens. I feel this makes up for them not getting the grass, herbs and nasturtiums that they get in the summer. They can scratch for worms and bugs but don’t at the moment as it’s too wet.

Before getting any ideas back it suddenly struck me that it could be their layers pellets. I had bought a big sack of them back when I thought I would be getting my chickens about March/April time. I wanted to be well prepared but because the cold weather delayed hatching, I didn’t end up getting them until June and also hadn’t realized how long they would be on growers pellets.

I asked on the “Down The Lane” forum if the pellets had a use by date ( I had them stored in a plastic tub with a lid so none of the original information with them). The answers that came back were that they do have a use by date. I felt pretty stupid not to have realized that and threw them out straight away and bought fresh ones.

The old ones were crumbly and the girls didn’t want them the first day, but I reduced the treats to encourage them to eat them (bad chicken mum!).

The fresh ones are much firmer. I am now convinced this is what the problem is. It will probably take a few days to get the old pellets out of their system so only time will tell. We will taste each egg separately, rather than as part of a meal. I really hope this is what it is.

The feedback from “Down The Lane” was that no one had come across this before but that most people agreed with me that it was probably the pellets. One person said that they had bought some pellets that had a musty, mouldy smell to them like bread gets before it turns blue. This is exactly the taste we are getting. Some people said try reducing the treats and others said that they gave the same treats as me with no problem. One person said that if this is the problem at least it is easily solved.

I then looked it up on the internet and found other people had the same problem. Most said that they thought it could be the pellets. I felt better knowing that we are not the only ones to come across this.

Its a shame because Treacle is laying perfect eggs. The shells are really hard and the yolks a lovely bright colour. We will monitor the situation and hope the eggs soon improve.