Confused!

[Justanother Brooke]

I have found 3 eggs in less than 24 hours from one pullet that is definitely laying, and one that has been ready to lay for a while.
Buttercup has been laying since last Wednesday, and quite consistently. She lays a medium sized kind of cream colored egg, and has laid every day except Friday since she started. Yesterday when I got home from work, I checked for eggs, and there was one with a little blood on it. I know it was laid sometime between about 8 a.m. and 3 p.m., and it was very cold at 3. I took it in and cleaned it up, and noticed that it was smaller and a shade or two darker than the eggs we have been getting. So I decided Poppy has finally started laying, hooray! Never did see an egg from Buttercup though, but was thinking she might be taking another day off. When I went to let them out of the coop this morning, at about 6:30, there was an egg on the poop board underneath Buttercup's normal roosting spot, which was not there when I locked them up last night at about 9. It looked just like all the other eggs we have gotten from her, and was very, very cold (it was about 33 last night). Do chickens sometimes lay at night? When they are sleeping?

Then, when I got home today (about 3:30), there was another egg, right in the same spot on the poop board (girls are having a hard time figuring out the nest boxes, grrr), and it was still warm. Looked like another Buttercup egg, not a Poppy egg...
I am so confused!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Sometimes when pullets first start laying, they do not have all the kinks out of their internal egg laying factory. If they release an extra yolk, they can lay more than one egg a day or even a double yolker. Sometimes the eggs are OK, but often the second egg does not have a good shell. The shell gland does not always have enough shell material built up in that short a time for a complete shell.

Also when they are first starting to lay, they often do not have control over their system. They seem to not know when they are about to lay and just let it go. Usually, they gain control pretty quickly, but sometimes it can take a couple of weeks.

 

[Stingrayg4]

Quote:
In my experience they will do this sometimes when they're very young and have just started laying. Often this overnight egg won't have shell at all, just a membrane. You may see this happen a few more times, but they'll grow out of it.

-S