Chicken sometimes lays 2 eggs a day, one hard and one soft

Karen K

Chirping
Mar 25, 2020
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My blue Australorp laid a soft egg her very first time last fall. Then she was a reliable hard shell egg producer. Recently she will sometimes lay 2 eggs a day. The first one will have a nice shell the 2nd one doesn't. Usually there is only about a 12 hour break between the eggs being layed. This has happened 3 times in the last 2 weeks. Two of the times the eggs were not in the nesting box. Twice they were underneath her roosting perch. She has access to oyster shell. Her feeds is for laying hens. She gets extra oats and barley which have calcium and she has access to kale. So, she has access to calcium. She also gets daily probiotics in her water. She isn't molting at the moment. She does get to free-range during the day. But I don't know why she is laying her eggs so close together. Is this a sign of something more serious?
She did have some difficulties with 3 Brahma chickens that we had (they have since been rehomed). And so early on she wasn't growing as much as I assumed an australorp would grow. Since the Brahmas are now gone, even though she is only 10 1/2 months old she is finally putting on weight and looking nice and healthy, but I'm still worried why she would be laying 2 eggs a day. Should I be worried?
 
Picture of the odd and regular egg, if possible?
I didn't think to take pictures. But they weren't misshapen. One had a regular shell, the other just the membrane. However, when she first started laying eggs, they were light brown. I had heard that the color of a chickens egg lightens as the hen ages. Now her eggs are more tan to cream than light brown.
 
Following this post. I have the same issue with one of my young ones. I will get 9 eggs from 9 hens and there would still be a soft shelled egg under the roost from during the night/early morning. They are all happy, eating and foraging so..... Hopefully someone will have an idea on why this is happening to our girls.
 
Never heard anything like it..
Soft eggs are normal, but make sure to give them enough calcium.
2 eggs a day... regularly??? Sounds weird to me, or maybe you're lucky!! :)
 
I started giving them caltrate with vitamin D. We got one hard egg and then again a soft one, only this time my 2 hens both did it. Then my australorp turned broody and doesn't want to leave the nest. Now she hasn't laid an egg at all today, which doesn't worry me, with her being broody, but I don't know why the other hen suddenly would lay a soft egg and then a hard but wrinkled one.
 
a hard but wrinkled one
Pic of this would be good.

What brand and formulation(crumble, pellets, cracked grains) of layer feed?
I'd cut out all but the layer feed and access to Oyster Shell and plain water.
Try that for a week or two and see if it doesn't help
Some greens can inhibit uptake of calcium.
Good shelling is about more than just calcium,
there are other nutrients/minerals that allow calcium to be used.
 
We use purina layena, and peck and scratch for laying hens. They have probiotics in their water and can get oyster shell whenever they want it. She isn't even a year old yet. She's not laying right now because she's gone broody.

I was able to get some egg shells from the kitchen where I volunteer. I heated them in an oven at low heat for an hour to dry them out, then used a rolling pin to crush them. I offered that to the chickens and they definitely prefer it over the oyster shells.

Meanwhile, Violet is still brooding on 2 rubber eggs and keeps stealing Atilla's eggs when she lays them. Atilla's eggs have been normal, and currently Violet isn't laying any since she's brooding.
 
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I have a similar situation. I had 3 rescue hens and when the second died, it was a month before the next rescues were due so I got a point of lay Dark Sussex (Celia) to keep my lone hen company.

The young hen has steadily been growing and getting to the size of the older one. She’s active and seems healthy and happy. The six are now together, free ranging, all the time.

They have multiple food & water sources and are on an organic layers food and have toasted shells and grit available.

While it’s been really cold in the morning, to sustain the rescues who are really skinny, I mix their mash with warm water, garlic, turmeric, apple cider vinegar and oregano - which they seem to love. They get either spinach/tomatoes/melon/lettuce/probiotic plain organic yoghurt in the afternoon.

One of the new rescues has only ever laid broken or soft eggs - initially erratically and they’d distress and hurt her, but she’s calmed a lot and is no longer distressed and doesn’t show signs of pain (she’s so small and just worn out I think, so don’t expect a huge change).

One night as the others trotted to the coop, Celia was not behaving normally. She was holding her wings out and crouching while waddling. She got on a small lump of oak then got off. At no point did she head towards her usual nest (not in the coop!)

After about 15 minutes, she laid a soft egg on the grass. She took about five minutes to start moving normally again, seemed happy enough and wanted to go into the coop.

The caged hens are older and lay larger, more wobbly eggs than hers. I’m pretty sure that in the last two weeks she’s laid about 4 soft eggs at night (I’ve seen her produce 3), while still laying a normal egg in the morning almost daily - possibly missed a couple but possibly only 1.

Is this a sign of something worrying? I haven’t had a young hen before (she’s 7 months old) is this part of her getting a normal cycle?
I’ve added pictures of tonight’s soft egg, but not sure you can see the flat base.

Any information or advice would be very welocme
 

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