First time chicken owner with first time layers!! Please help

[Bianchi]

Hello all I'm so confused and new to all of this...
We have 8 leghorns that we got in April and One of our girls started laying on Aug 1st. We have gotten one egg a day (small, which I thought was odd since they are suppose to lay large eggs, but I thought maybe Bc she just started?) Yesterday I went out and checked the coop and there was an egg in the nesting box covered in yolk (the shell was intact and hard), so I thought something was wrong. Then an hour or so later I went back out to check on them and there was another egg in the same spot as the day before.
So can a chicken lay twice in one day? Or do I have two layers now?
Also, I went out today (8/4) and there were no eggs August first, second, and third there was an egg laid between 12pm - 1 pm
Is there something wrong (Bc the eggs are small and how there were two eggs yesterday) or am I over thinking this whole thing?
Thank you all very much!!

 

[dunnmom]

Pullets can lay all sorts of weird eggs until their bodies get the hang of it. They can be really tiny, to really huge, double yolkers, no yolkers, soft shelled, no shelled, off colored, weird shapes too. I've heard laying two in a day can happen, but I've never seen it personally. We had some tiny ones from our first layer, and then some humongous ones from our second layer, who ended up with a prolapsed vent. So, smaller is more preferable in the beginning.

 

[Bianchi]

Pullets can lay all sorts of weird eggs until their bodies get the hang of it. They can be really tiny, to really huge, double yolkers, no yolkers, soft shelled, no shelled, off colored, weird shapes too. I've heard laying two in a day can happen, but I've never seen it personally. We had some tiny ones from our first layer, and then some humongous ones from our second layer, who ended up with a prolapsed vent. So, smaller is more preferable in the beginning.

Thank you very much for your reply. I will be on the look out for more eggs today. I was thinking she might of laid twice and that is why we didn't get anything yesterday.

 

[aart]

Welcome to BYC!

New layers can lay 2 in a day, especially high production breeds like a Leghorn, 1 of them is usually soft or thin shelled, easily broken and thus fair game for being eaten. That's probably where the yolk on the hard shelled egg came from, they ate the rest of the egg-including the thin shell or membrane of a 'softshell'.

It could also be that another of your pullets has started laying too. You can examine them to tell who is laying and who is not. It's great time t learn a bit about chicken anatomy, often best to examine them off the roost at night(easier to 'catch').

Vent Appearance:
Dry, tight, and smaller - usually not laying.
Moist, wide, and larger - usually laying.

Pelvic Points, feel for the 2 bony points(pelvic bones F-F) on either side of vent:
Less than 2 fingertip widths apart usually means not laying.
More than 2 fingertip widths apart usually means laying.
(Spacing is relative with chickens size and humans finger size.)

 

[Engine823]

Yeah my barr rock pullet started laying about a week and a half ago. She has laid small eggs so far and they are very light in color right now. Nothing unusual with that. It is also very common for them to skip a day or so between laying. I think your chickens are just fine

 

[Merrymouse]

@aart As usual you are a plethora of information. I really like the diagram. Thanks!

 

[Bhapimama]

Hello all I'm so confused and new to all of this...
We have 8 leghorns that we got in April and One of our girls started laying on Aug 1st. We have gotten one egg a day (small, which I thought was odd since they are suppose to lay large eggs, but I thought maybe Bc she just started?) Yesterday I went out and checked the coop and there was an egg in the nesting box covered in yolkView attachment 1101912 (the shell was intact and hard), so I thought something was wrong. Then an hour or so later I went back out to check on them and there was another egg in the same spot as the day before. View attachment 1101911
So can a chicken lay twice in one day? Or do I have two layers now?
Also, I went out today (8/4) and there were no eggs August first, second, and third there was an egg laid between 12pm - 1 pm
Is there something wrong (Bc the eggs are small and how there were two eggs yesterday) or am I over thinking this whole thing?
Thank you all very much!!

My girls are just getting started too. 2 EEs, a Barred Rock and a Gold Laced Wyandotte. They're 19 weeks old. One of the EEs laid her first egg 9 days ago and seems to have gotten the hang of it pretty quickly. The last four days she has laid every day. The eggs are fairly small but otherwise normal. I was suspicious that my Barred Rock was laying too but hiding them out in the yard. She is showing the signs (red face, squatting). I found a yolk in a membrane just laying out in the middle of the yard a few days ago. And then the evening before last I heard the egg song and I went outside and I couldn't find her anywhere. She's very good at camouflage with her speckled feathers, lol. So yesterday evening I returned all the girls to their run early and sure enough, Peep went into the nesting box and laid an "egg". It was shell-less but the shape and size of a normal egg. And then this morning, there was ANOTHER shell-less egg under where she was roosting. It was kind of weird shaped and so fragile that it broke when I picked it up.
I hope this is all normal and that she'll begin laying normal eggs soon

 

[dunnmom]

Are you feeding layer feed, or something else? Any kind of calcium source? That may not have anything to do with why you're getting soft eggs, could just be a new layer thing. But if they aren't getting that yet, maybe it would help. When I got my first egg, I didn't switch to layer feed until we were out of their starter/grower feed. Until then I gave them crushed eggshell in their scratch mix. They mostly picked around it, but I figured they would know how much they needed. At any rate, let us know how it's going.

 

[Bhapimama]

Are you feeding layer feed, or something else? Any kind of calcium source? That may not have anything to do with why you're getting soft eggs, could just be a new layer thing. But if they aren't getting that yet, maybe it would help. When I got my first egg, I didn't switch to layer feed until we were out of their starter/grower feed. Until then I gave them crushed eggshell in their scratch mix. They mostly picked around it, but I figured they would know how much they needed. At any rate, let us know how it's going.

We're about halfway through a bag of starter crumble. I was thinking I would finish it before switching to the layer pellets. My friend suggested yogurt and oyster shells as a supplement, so I think I'll try that today. I'll keep you posted

 

[dunnmom]

I just hope they start laying good hard eggs, so you won't have to worry anymore. My girls love yogurt! I recommend you put it down and stand back, because they might just sling it everywhere. Lol!