I have a point of lay Koekkoek who si laying happily and then 2 very fat broilers who were supposed to be laying chickens that we got as day olds from the church bazaar. The one has now at 5 months started laying, there have been about 4 small eggs so far and apparently they will grow in size. Today I found a small egg with no shell, very rubber like in the nesting box. Could this one be the other chicken starting to lay? Do they do this at the beginning of their laying? Or could it be the one that started already. They free range most of the day I do give them chicken food at night and I feed them crushed up egg shells for the calcium, do they need more calcium than this? We live in South Africa so sun and Vit D is not a problem. Thanks
Everyone has a bad day now and then. Unfortunately, this doesn't help figure out who laid the shell-less egg. Even established layers will occasionally lay a weird-shaped egg, or an egg with two or three yolks (or none!). It could be a new layer, the newbie layer, or an older hen. It sounds like you are giving enough calcium to the flock, so unless you start seeing shell-less eggs on a regular basis, I wouldn't worry.
did you break it open to see if was a egg??----what fooled me one time,,,i thought it was a egg too,,,it was white and round and on the inside,,but i broke it open,,,it was food that was not broken down? the white around it was urine..since chicken can't pee,,,it surrounds the waste--this is urine---if it was like mne..give them more grit the wonders of chickens
I had some pullets that were going on 8 months old and had not laid a single egg. I only have 7 chickens and 5 were laying, it was the 2 that werent. About 2 months ago, I started getting a gel looking egg laid off the roost every morning for about 7-8 days and thought it was really becoming a problem. Evidently tho it was just that they were learning to get in the swing of things, they began laying regular looking eggs after that and even one day this week ----- I got 7 eggs from the 7 girls. So make sure you have a bowl of oyster shell out and after that try not to worry.
Soft-shelled, small or shell-free eggs are common among new layers. It's no cause for concern unless it continues. Here is a blog post that may be of interest to you in explaining what's normal and what's not in egg-laying: http://eggcartonlabels.blogspot.com/2012/01/how-hen-makes-egg-egg-oddities.html
