Egg question

[johnnycash]

Ok first of all I would like to thank everyone on this site for all the helpful info I have gotten from here while trying to figure out this hen raising hobby I have gotten myself into. The question I have is 5 days ago I finally got my first egg, it was a tiny egg but hey I was excited anyway after spending over a grand for free eggs Ill take anything . So day 1 I had the one tiny egg day two 1 egg again slightly larger though so now we are getting somewhere then on day three I have 1 tiny egg and 2 larger eggs so I figure great at least 3 of my 4 hens are now supplying eggs yay me!. Then on day 4 1 egg again, another of the slightly larger eggs day 5 today same story 1 egg again. My question is do hens go days without laying is that the reason I had the 3 egg day then back to 1? I checked the coop and the run and found no sign of eggs layed elsewhere? My other question was in my nesting box I have pine chips and my hens or hen is scratching all the pine chips out of the box then laying the egg causing the egg I got today to be slightly cracked. Oh last question is the hens/hens are laying the eggs after I leave for work and I have been unable to collect the eggs until later in the afternoon is it ok for the eggs to be in the 95degree heat all day and still be eaten? Thanks in advance for any help

 

[dewey]

Congrats on the first eggs and

!

This site is such a great site.

As far as laying, it can be hit and miss with laying when they first start, then they get pretty regular after several weeks.

Many people use shavings or hay in the boxes but I use padded place mats. Yours may eventually stop kicking out the shavings but it couldn't hurt to put a mat in if eggs are getting cracked.

Also, the diet can play a part in eggs that crack easily. Are they on layer feed?

The eggs should be fine in that temp and higher if collected 1x daily after work if there's no cracks in them. Cracked, clean eggs are usually fine to eat the same day or fed back to the chickens if there's any qualms with eating them (for feeding them back I usually just crush shell and all and microwave for a minute, cool, and feed, other times they get the raw egg crushed). Opinions will vary on that. Eggs are around 105 degrees when the chickens lay them

and it routinely gets 110+ here in the summer. I like to collect and cool them asap for quality control, not that they'd go bad.

 

[jengro65]

This is my first experience with chickens and eggs too I'm actually too embarrassed to tell you how much my "free eggs" start up was LOL.....I have 10 white leghorns and it was hit and miss with eggs in the beginning too. Plus they started out really small and several didn't have a shell. Now my girls are 22 weeks old and and of the past 7 days I had 5 days with 10 nice eggs and the other 2 days with 8 and 9. BTW they were 16 weeks when they started to lay so it was about 6 weeks before I saw consistency. This week they have all laid before noon but that wasn't the case the prior weeks (anytime during the day). I also haven't seen any unshelled or thin shelled eggs for awhile.....but lots with double yolks!

 

[Ridgerunner]

My question is do hens go days without laying is that the reason I had the 3 egg day then back to 1?

Not all hens lay every day. It is somewhat breed dependent and very much an individual thing. Especially when they first start, they can be very inconsistent. I've had hens that lay 13 eggs in 14 days once they sort things out. I've had hens that lay a fair amount less often.

My other question was in my nesting box I have pine chips and my hens or hen is scratching all the pine chips out of the box then laying the egg causing the egg I got today to be slightly cracked.

I find that if I put a lip across the bottom of the nest that is maybe 5" to 6" high, they don't scratch the bedding, fake eggs, or real eggs out. When a hen goes into the nest to lay, she will often scratch around to arrange the bedding material just right. That can create some pretty deep holes in the bedding or they rake things out. But with a generous lip on the nest, I stopped those problems.

Oh last question is the hens/hens are laying the eggs after I leave for work and I have been unable to collect the eggs until later in the afternoon is it ok for the eggs to be in the 95degree heat all day and still be eaten?

An egg is not going to go bad (spoil) unless there is bacteria inside the egg, even if it is kept warm. If it has bacteria inside it, it will spoil faster at warmer temperatures. During incubation, eggs are kept in that temperature range for three weeks without spoiling. So if you gather the eggs daily, they should be safe to eat. It won't hurt to sniff the egg to see if you detect an odor before you crack it and I think it is always a good idea to crack it in a separate bowl before you mix it with anything else just to check, but you should not have any problems.

Fertilized eggs will start to develop at those temperatures. If you gather them daily, you will not have a problem with this, but if you don't gather them daily, well, that might be another good reason to crack them in a separate bowl. It's not that they are unsafe to eat if they have started to develop. In some cultures, those are prized delicacies. But personally I would not wish to eat a partially developed egg.