Sand papery or pimpled shell texture is a common shell defect and occurs in the bigger eggs laid by older hens. Molting is the only procedure which will reverse this natural occurrence. Excess calcium in the feed is often blamed as a cause of sand papery shells but this does not appear to be true. When a shell texture problem is encountered, the smooth and sand papery shelled shelled eggs should be weighed to determined if the problem occurs mostly in eggs weighing 64 g or more. If this is the case, the problem is likely related to excess hen weight. If eggs of all sizes are equally affected, a disease challenge such as bronchitis should be investigated.

Eggs can be tested in specific gravity salt solutions to determine their shell thickness. Eggs with a specific gravity under 80 are three times as likely to crack as eggs with a higher specific gravity.

Larger eggs tend to have thinner shells but this effect is most noticeable in young flocks. As flocks grow older, the shells become thinner in all sizes of eggs and the decline is greatest in the smaller eggs. In old flocks, egg weight has a limited effect on shell thickness. The aging of the hen causes shell thickness to decline, not the size of the egg.

As flocks grow older, the level of cracks increases in all sizes of eggs as the shells become thinner. The higher level of cracks in jumbo eggs is due to the greater momentum they obtain as they roll out of the cages and the greater chance of their being pinched during gathering.

Mechanical egg packers are more likely to crack extra large and jumbo sized eggs than hand gathering systems. If egg weight is reduced by 2 grams, cracks will be reduced by 0.5% if they are hand gathered but 1.0% to 2.0% if they are packed mechanically. Leakers will be reduced by 1/3^rd with hand or mechanical gathering.