Have we finally hit on the answer to our strange tasting eggs?

We have been struggling to find out what has been making our eggs taste unpleasant. I have had lots of helpful ideas and support from the “Down the Lane” forum and also discovered fellow chicken keeper, Jackie, who lives very near me.

Yesterday we met up for a coffee, lots of chicken chat and to swap eggs. I gave her one each of Treacle’s and Bluebell’s to try and she gave me one of her lovely, huge, eggs and kindly some of her pellets to try.

I then bought her over to visit my chooks and take a look at my set up. While we were chatting with the chooks my husband joined us and suddenly had a light bulb moment. He took a jasmine leaf to wash and taste and said it tasted quite bitter. I then did the same and found it quite pungent. We are now convinced this is what the problem is. Originally I dismissed the jasmine as I thought the chooks couldn’t reach it to eat enough of it, but recently Treacle and Bluebell have learned that they can get up onto the storage cabinet and reach much more. They have stripped a good portion of it and yesterday morning when I was cleaning the coop, Bluebell stepped across from the cabinet and into the jasmine itself to reach even more.

By this time it was getting dark so I got some wire and tied it back out of reach. Today I chopped it down to a few feet in height with no green left on it and tomorrow I will dig it out altogether. Bluebell was very cross about it and was at my feet or on the coop roof going “bock bock” very loudly.

I had Jackies egg for breakfast this morning and it was lovely. It was so nice to have a “normal” tasting egg. Before poaching it I took a photo of her egg with my girl’s for comparison.

Jackie’s two year old chook’s egg in the middle and Treacle’s on the right, Bluebell’s on the left

Jackie reported back yesterday that she had tried Bluebell’s egg and found it musty with a back taste that lasted. It is good to have someone else’s opinion.

This afternoon I tasted Treacle’s egg from yesterday (she laid another today which I will try tomorrow) and Bluebell’s egg from this morning. Treacle’s tasted the same but I thought Bluebell’s was a little less strong. This makes me feel quite positive that this may be the cause, hurrah! I really hope so because this has been a long and trying process and it would be so good to be able to eat their eggs at last. I could also give them some of their treats back but won’t change the regime until we are sure. I am feeling quite excited that we may have sorted this at last, but know that only time will tell.