Can hens lay empty shells?

[The Kibble Goddess]

Sister, my EE who had her vent half ripped off and then stitched back on last winter, has been laying about every other day. About a week a go I noticed her shells were getting thinner and thinner. Then she laid a soft-shelled egg. It seemed to be just the odd egg, and she's back to laying about every two days or so. Tonight as I was putting the girls to bed I noticed an egg in the box. Next to it was a crushed shell, but no yolk or whites, and nothing soaked into the nesting material. It looks for all the world like she laid an empty egg and then laid a normal one. Can they do that?

The girls get some scraps, not much, Dumoor Layer pellets, and they have grit and shell available 24/7. They get to range in the yard from 5 PM till roosting about 5 days a week. They have been trying to snarf down the chick feed that I put out for my soon-to-be 8-week olds who have been in with them for about 2 weeks, but the opening of the feeder is a bit to small for their heads to get into comfortably. The chicks are going on grower feed tomorrow. Do you think their having access to chick feed was a contributing factor in Sister's thin and soft shelled eggs? Polish-hen eats the same as Sister and her eggs are getting bigger and bigger and have nice, thick shells.

 

[Saltysteele]

no.

the shell is formed after the albumin has attached to the yolk (the yolk comes from the ovaries, the white comes later, the egg shell follows)

they can eat them quick enough to not leave a wet spot

 

[rancher hicks]

I had a hen lay and egg with NO yolk at all. They're females they can do what ever they want. I have seen in the magazines hens who lay an egg inside another egg. Shell and all. It was either Practical poultry or Backyard poultry.

 

[Saltysteele]

i have had that before, as well (very rarely), however, without a white or yolk, there is nothing for the shell to form around

 

[andrew6d9]

That's wierd.

 

[jason_mazzy]

I would not say not possible. weirder things have happened. just think about the weird crap that shows up in an egg that scientifically shouldnt be there. I would think possibly an egg that had very little in it.

 

[Hensamongus]

Instead of the typical old question of what came first, the chicken or the egg, this would simply be, what came first, the yoke or the shell? I have seen a few eggs that were eaten before I cold collect them, but usually there is some residue left. Was the egg shell intact and just full of air or did you have shell remnants with no yoke or white?

 

[Ms.Frizzle]

I would think it is impossible because the shell would crack while being layed since it wouldn't have anything to counteract the muscles squeezing it out.

 

[Saltysteele]

there is not a mold inside the chicken where the shell is made, and then another area where the shell is placed around something.

crystalline calcium carbonate is deposited around the egg in the lower part of the oviduct just before it is laid. it is the last part of the egg to be made before it is laid. the calcite forms AROUND something. it isn't going to just form an egg shape with nothing for it to attach to

i found this site a while back, when curious to how eggs were formed (i didn't just pull this info out of my butt

): http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/birds/info/chicken/egg.shtml

 

[speckledhen]

If you find a crushed shell with no contents, I can almost guarantee you that an egg was crushed when it was laid and they ate it up very quickly. Have seen enough of that lately. They won't break them on purpose and eat them (I don't have any actual egg eaters here), but if one breaks, they slurp it up ASAP.