Two eggs early this morning - questions

Katz5617

Chirping
5 Years
Jul 21, 2014
124
4
63
I have been getting perfectly formed eggs with shells for the past week. Each egg came in the afternoon around 3:30. I think I only have one chicken that is laying. Well yesterday I got a perfectly formed egg but it was in the morning - about six hours earlier than I had been getting them and the shell was like it should be. This morning when I went out at 6 to let the girls out - I had two eggs. One was the size I have been getting but the shell was soft and it was ripped - but they had not eaten it and then beside it was a much smaller egg - still a perfect shape but about double the size of a bird egg and it had a soft shell too. I have layer feed and I have a side dish of oyster shells for the girls if they want or need them. After getting five normal eggs I am a bit disturbed that suddenly I have eggs that the shells haven't hardened and I would think from appearances and since it was in the same location that one of the girls laid two at once and neither shell had hardened. I'm not sure if another of the girls is beginning to lay and this is a first effort or if it is the one that has been laying for a week and something has gone wrong. Is there something I need to be doing besides the layer feed and oyster shell to add to their diet. Their main diet is the processed food, but I will offer them a bit of cracked corn, turnips from the garden, chopped carrots, etc. The bulk of their diet however is from the processed food. They have both food and water 24/7
 

These were the eggs I got this morning - the shells are soft. The one is ripped. The smaller of the two is smaller than it appears in the photo - it is a little over half the size of the larger egg and they were in the same nest.
 
Not unusual....the rip is probably from them checking it out.
Eating a softshell egg will not lead to eating whole hard shelled eggs, I figure a soft or broken egg in the coop is fair game for them to eat, but it is best to pick them up and get then out of there when you find one.

New layers can be quite goofy acting, they don't know what they are doing at first and can be confused and anxious, it can take up to a month or so before they get it all figured out. Meanwhile, eggs everywhere, some of them can be rather funky looking, soft or thin shelled, huge double yolked eggs.

It takes about 25 hours for an egg to form, a new ova is released shortly after an egg is laid.
A new egg could be laid approximately every 25-26 hours, so an hour or so later every day until one is laid late in the day and another ova might not be released until the following day, so a day off.
BUT..very hen is different and only time will tell what a particular hen/pullets schedule might be. Not every hen/pullet lays every day..some only lay a few a week.
 
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A week is not a terribly long time when you think of all that involved with laying an egg. 5 good eggs doesn't mean you'll never see a weird one once in a while. Any hen can lay a weird egg now and then and it's especially common for new layers.

I kind of enjoy the oddities and it helps me to appreciate all that has to go right in order for an egg to come to perfect like they generally do.

It sounds like your birds are healthy and enjoy a good diet and environment so I'm sure they will provide you with plenty of perfect eggs but you can expect an odd one here and there from even the most experienced layers.
 
No egg yesterday and I didn't expect one since it appears that Precious laid two at one whack - seems to me she pushed a bit hard and she delivered both eggs. Neither had a hard shell but the first was obviously much larger. The five eggs we have gotten (7 with the two soft shells) have been very small - but this morning - we got a humdinger. I compared it to the large and extra large I have in the frig from the grocery store - they don't even compare. The egg is a jumbo for sure. I couldn't even get the carton to close down on it. If she begins laying eggs this size - we will be able to have a one egg omlet.
 
Bet that huge one is a double yolker.....

One of my pullets laid a half dozen of double yolkers during the first 6 weeks and has laid a few more since, but she's my most prolific layer rarely taking a day off with a 49 day stretch and 34 day stretch.
 

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