OK. I have 12 girls, three of which are California Whites (Marcia, Jan and Cindy). All of the chickens, save for one, lay lovely, large eggs in the morning and afternoon. A couple of months ago, I accidentally left the coop door open after putting the girls to bed. About 9pm I was startled to see Marcia on the patio looking at me thru the door. Then her body started to undulate and out popped an egg! The egg was weird-it had a thin, papery shell but was normal inside. I started offering oyster shell to them, their eggs had been fine so I had figured that they were getting enough calcium before then. The night time laying on the porch happened a couple more times. I also found several eggs splattered on the ground under her while she was roosting. Other than this issue, she seems to be just fine. Nowadays, at night I see her perched on the edge of the nesting boxes for hours. I know she will eventually lay her weird egg in the night after I go to bed.
It is almost like her egg isn't spending enough time in the uterus having the shell made before it is expelled. Also she seems to have gotten into the habit of laying at night.
It seems like there are three problems.
1) she is laying at a weird time of the day. how do i get her back to laying during the day?
2) her eggs are not right even though I increased her calcium intake
3) the other chickens, if given the opportunity, will snack of her eggs. I have found several huddled around the remains of an egg and the other day I chased Penny around the yard thinking she had a dead frog in her mouth only to find out it was the floppy remains of a dirt-covered shell. The minute I stopped chasing her she slurped the shell down like a piece of spaghetti. I do not want them to decide other eggs are tasty too and turn into a bunch of egg eaters.
FYI I feed them Layer Feed, oyster shell, Red Lake Earth and kitchen scraps, fruit, veg, etc.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
It is almost like her egg isn't spending enough time in the uterus having the shell made before it is expelled. Also she seems to have gotten into the habit of laying at night.
It seems like there are three problems.
1) she is laying at a weird time of the day. how do i get her back to laying during the day?
2) her eggs are not right even though I increased her calcium intake
3) the other chickens, if given the opportunity, will snack of her eggs. I have found several huddled around the remains of an egg and the other day I chased Penny around the yard thinking she had a dead frog in her mouth only to find out it was the floppy remains of a dirt-covered shell. The minute I stopped chasing her she slurped the shell down like a piece of spaghetti. I do not want them to decide other eggs are tasty too and turn into a bunch of egg eaters.
FYI I feed them Layer Feed, oyster shell, Red Lake Earth and kitchen scraps, fruit, veg, etc.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
