Consistently VERY large eggs

[629864]

I have a hen that consistently lays eggs that are far bigger than those from my other hens. They are all RIRs and all the same age (approximately 1 year old). These eggs are too big to even fit in an egg carton. I feel bad for her and it just seems horribly painful to me. Is there anything I can do to help her make smaller eggs?

 

[danielle2003]

I don't know if there is a way to make her eggs smaller (I could be wrong). Does she seem to be straining painfully when laying? has been there blood on the shell (sometimes when an egg is too big, a small blood vessel will pop). If she isn't in any obvious pain, I think she would be fine.

 

[aart]

Are they double yolkers?

Are you in the southern hemisphere or using supplemental lighting?

You can't make the eggs smaller.
As long as she eating/drinking/pooping/moving around OK, I'd not worry.

 

[danielle2003]

I'm not an expert, so if anyone else has better advice, please take it!

 

[629864]

We have a heat lamp that turns on when temps dip below 50F, but it's a red bulb. We're in north central Arkansas.

 

[629864]

I don't know if there is a way to make her eggs smaller (I could be wrong). Does she seem to be straining painfully when laying? has been there blood on the shell (sometimes when an egg is too big, a small blood vessel will pop). If she isn't in any obvious pain, I think she would be fine.

I haven't noticed any blood, but at least one of my hens makes a lot of noise when laying (noisier than the others). They refuse to actually lay if I'm in their house and at that hour of the morning, there's usually multiple hens in the house, so I'm not sure who's making the noise. But I'm fairly confident the large eggs are from the same hen each time because they're always in the same nesting box ... and this particular nesting box seems to be a favorite of only two of my hens.

 

[629864]

Are they double yolkers?

Are you in the southern hemisphere or using supplemental lighting?

You can't make the eggs smaller.
As long as she eating/drinking/pooping/moving around OK, I'd not worry.

No, these are single yolks eggs.

 

[629864]

Sorry to be posting again about this, but I'm very worried about my hen. It just hurts to even see her eggs now. All other eggs I collected this morning range from 68-73 grams. This one, as you can see in the photo, is more than 107 grams ... about 65% heavier than the others. That's like a woman giving birth to a 12 pound baby....every other day. I mean, that's just gotta have a detrimental effect on her insides. It makes me wish she'd go broody and just incubate everyone else's eggs for a good long while.

 

[Cynthia12]

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Strongly recommend you look at a human pelvis. Your expectations are based on that.

Humans, and others, have a pelvic ring making the birth of large babies potentially dangerous and painful.

Chickens, and other avians, DO NOT.

What we do share in common is that our skin stretches, quite a lot.

Do not impose humanity upon your chickens. They are much better at being chickens than we are, and were purpose built for a reproductive system radically different than our own. You have to set your assumptions aside - while they may frequently be helpful when dealing with apes, dogs, cats, and the like, they tend to be a poor guide to avians.

/edit Long term, yes, I'd expect a higher incidence of reproductive problems in later life. But there's nothing you can do about, really. Do keep in mind however, that even though the mass of the egg is increased significantly (which has consequences for dietary needs), the critical concern here is the diameter - and the diameter of the egg at its widest part is NOT 65% larger than the "typical" RIR egg. If you have a sewing tape, you can measure and do the math. If not, a string and a ruler works.