Soft egg laying under roost

[deacons]

My 5 month old pullets have been laying for about 2 weeks. This morning, under their portion of the roosting bar, there was a soft, but fully formed, egg on the ground. This part if the coop is also directly in front of the nesting box- but the egg was not in a nesting box- so I suppose it could be possible that it came from one of my older hens. However, I doubt that as I've never had one if these older hens lay outside the box.

Not quite sure what, if anything, I need to do now that this has happened. I hope it was just a fluke, but any advice?

 

[jdoane]

It was a fun lesson in egg production for my kids!

 

[deacons]

Alright guys, so what are the odds, my day started with a weird egg and ended with one. This one was very odd looking, wrinkled and leathery looking, but hard- when you tapped it with a fingernail, it sounded like one of those hollow ceramic animal figurines. So much so, I actually wondered if it was hollow, so I cracked it open, but inside was a perfectly normal egg with a pretty pumpkin orange yolk. Too bad I wasted it!




Right now, I believe that 5 out of 8 (maybe 6 out of 8) hens are laying, but the problem is they all insist on using the same nest, so I'm not sure who this came from. One the one hand, if it was from the same one who laid the "rubber" egg last night, maybe it's just a glitch in the system evening out- but it seems too soon for that one to have already laid again if the "rubber" egg came between sundown yesterday and sunup today.

On the other hand, if this particular egg was from a different chicken, do I have a bigger problem going on here affecting multiple chickens? I just upped the amount of free choice oyster shell outside. The only other thing I can think of is that I just recently stopped feeding yogurt in the morning since it's gotten so cold out- but, taking away 4 tbs of yogurt (shared among 8 chickens) couldn't possibly be such a change in their calcium intake to mess with egg laying, could it? They are on a high quality layer pellet, but do seem to be eating a little less this week, which again I attribute to the cold.

Hmm...I guess nothing to do except see what tomorrow holds.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Here is a poster about eggshell quality problems. It may be helpful, it may not. It's meant for large layer farms where there aren't as many factors to consider as there are in a backyard flock. http://www.alltech.com/sites/default/files/alltech-egg-shell-quality-poster.pdf

 

[CVFreshEggs]

Here's a weird one we got:

It was the same size as my 6 year olds hand and when we cracked it there was another fully formed hard egg inside of it along with the yolk. Weirdest thing I've ever seen...

 

[lmerklein]

I really admire you!! Wow. I rescued two game birds about month ago. I have six hens but I cant mix these two with them. The two birds I rescued were badly malnourished. Someone dumped them!!! They are a pair, the male is golden and the female almost black, beautiful. She was badly injured. I nursed her back and he stayed by her side. They are so cute. I called them Hansel and Gretal. I still don't know what they are, they are not big like a chicken. I posted a blog about them with a picture on the tab for Breeds. If you go to the tab for what breed are these birds you will find my post.

I am happy to hear your hen is doing well. I am up tonight because my hens just had a awful scare and I myself as well, a possum hit the coop and I was very lucky to have caught it! I jumped out of bed and out to the yard and there was the possum with my one hen. I was very lucky! He will be back! I calmed them down and put them in the Large tuff Shed that I build for them for winter . It is cold enough now to put them in the house. My coop is their summer house with plenty of air and I lock it down for the night, but that possum got through the chicken wire!!! I have a lovely chicken coop that is open run in the middle with two ends have small roosting houses that they go into for the night. It is great for summer evenings. Not anymore!!!

 

[Badman]

Hello again Deacons,
Coincidence, my hen is also a Gold Laced Wyndotte....... I have not received another egg like that fom her again though.

Cheers
Paul B

 

[TERRY4]

Do you leave grit AND oyster shell in with them? I had a couple of soft ones when our hens were starting out, but it normally(with given the proper things)fixes itself. Sorry, but I don't agree with egg shell. It's not that pricey to get the oyster shell & grit.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

My 5 month old pullets have been laying for about 2 weeks. This morning, under their portion of the roosting bar, there was a soft, but fully formed, egg on the ground. This part if the coop is also directly in front of the nesting box- but the egg was not in a nesting box- so I suppose it could be possible that it came from one of my older hens. However, I doubt that as I've never had one if these older hens lay outside the box.

Not quite sure what, if anything, I need to do now that this has happened. I hope it was just a fluke, but any advice?

It was a burp in the egg laying system. For whatever reason, her body skipped this step. As long as it's isolated, don't worry about it.

In case you're interested, here's an article from Scientific American on eggshell formation. http://www.skylinecollege.edu/case/biol215/docs/eggshell.pdf

 

[deacons]

Thanks for that article, I will check it out. I have had oddly formed eggs, or even just papery "empty" shells, from my older hens, so it wasn't completely surprising. But I guess what seemed odd to me is that it was just laying on the ground with the morning poop, not in the nesting box. Does that mean she didn't actually try to lay, it just passed through her system without her really expecting it?

These are the first chickens I've raised from day old chicks, so the beginning of egg laying is a new thing for me. My other hens came to me as already laying adults when a neighbor had to get rid of them.