Battle of wills with a hen = strange egg?

gritsar

Cows, Chooks & Impys - OH MY!
14 Years
Nov 9, 2007
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SW Arkansas
My first hen to start laying didn't like the multitude of choices we offered her for nest boxes. She found the canvas folding chair on the porch more to her liking. At 4 PM every other day she would jump up in her chair and lay her egg. Since we were in the process of moving them to their permanent coop I let her have her way until yesterday; which was her regular day to lay.
Yesterday and today they've been locked in the new coop. Every time I'd go out to check on them this hen would let me know just what she thought of the new arrangement. She would also try to beat me out the door to go to her chair. I'd pick her up and put her in a nest box. She'd jump down, screaming at me, and head right back to the door of the coop again.
Finally late this afternoon she gave up and decided to lay in the nest box, but it's a weird egg. It has a scratchy surface, like fine grit sandpaper. It's also thin-shelled and almost white. Her previous eggs were always very thick shelled and brown. Did keeping this egg in too long cause this?
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I wouldn't be surprised if stress could cause something like this. One of our girls has laid eggs a few times with rough, lumpy surfaces. I don't know what caused it, but after one or two she went back to normal.
 
Quote:
I happened to walk into the coop just as she was getting down out of the nest box after laying her egg. The look she gave me as she walked by clearly said "There! Are you happy now??" It was like dealing with my daughter as a teenager all over again.
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Her name is Isis. The chicken, not my daughter.
 
It is so funny to me how hens have so much personallity.

I collect eggs in the morning but do not let them out until the late afternoon. I get the stink eye often when I do not let them out of the coop to the backyard.
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I do love to watch them!
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Wow... she's mad at her mama!!!! :mad:

I bet its just a fluke... keep up the battle and you will win, and her eggs will be fine. (Creatures of habit they is!)
 

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