This happened again today. I'm thinking of removing the poop board so that the eggs just fall to the bedding instead of breaking, but has anyone else had this happen? I'm not getting enough eggs to waste them like this!
Was it there 1st thing in the morning (overnight) or not until later on in the day. Was it was a normal, hard-shelled egg as far as you can tell? If it's happening overnight, probably just a glitch...although that generally doesn't happen with "good" eggs.
All I can think of us is that the cold has thrown their (her) system off. Just like any other stresser...extreme heat, moving, adding new flock-mates, egg laying, including the egg cycle, can be thrown out of whack. Of course there could be a physical issue, but I don't have a clue what it could be, as I've not heard of "accidental" egg laying overnight with perfectly good eggs, only the malformed "oops" eggs. I'd give it a week or so (although I'm sure the waste of eggs
) to see if it works it way out. In MY case, I'd add a bit of heat on really cold nights (assuming stress), but many frown on that
I sure hope it works itself out for you soon though; with three molters I'm getting very few eggs.
Oh, and I don't know how long your roost is, but maybe you can toss several handfuls of bedding on the dropping board along the line of where you're finding the broken eggs. That way you're still getting the benefit of a dropping board, but it'll soften the landing of an egg just enough to keep it from cracking if another accident happens. I always toss a little bit of bedding up there anyway to help absorb watery droppings...
Yep, this happened to me this morning too. I wouldnt worry.
The egg was from my Golden Comet who *almost* always lays in the nest box. Must be her cycle shifted and she didnt have the will, wish or want to get down off the roost in the middle of the night to go in the nest box to lay an egg.
Well, I'm providing light in the morning, starting at 3 am since the days are so short. Should I stop doing that? They start roosting at 3PM, regardless of whether I've got light in there or not in the evenings.