Got our first egg today! Have some questions.

[Ozarkoak]

A few of our RIR dropped a soft shell or two as their first few eggs. We even got an egg the size of a nickle. A week or two after they start the eggs will normalize. IMO that is a good sized egg for their first egg. I will be very interested to see how big they are in another 6 months. You may have an ostrich. /s Anyway congrats on your lady's first egg. Soon you will be eating egg samiches, fried eggs, boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, egg drop soup, egg cups, egg salad, poached eggs...

 

[Mrs. K]

I am going to strongly suggest that you do nothing. I am positive that this is a slight glitch and in a few days you will be getting very nice eggs. Producing and laying eggs happens without any human intervention MOST OF the time. I have had chickens for decades and have NeVEr had a chicken with the problem of not being able to lay eggs.

It does amaze me on here how many people seem to treat this problem, but then I realized that no one posts when eggs just come naturally, so it seems to be a bigger problem than it is.

Oyster shell, or calcium in layer feed, or eating egg shells, is a slow long term health aid. Most diet is. Go ahead and have a bowl of oyster shell out, it won't hurt anything, and they will nibble on it as needed. They are not going to eat a lot, and a lot of the time, they are not going to eat any of it. They eat it as needed.

Calcium is a big part of any animal, the body has multiple ways of supplying the calcium needed for daily use. Diet is only one of the ways, and not that big of one. No need to force feed it.

Mrs K

 

[The Ranch Girl]

we usually get oyster shells from our local tractor supply, It is definetaly a calcium deficiency

 

[TX Chick Noob]

She's thinking about egg number two. Keeps going in and out of the nest box and has dug herself a little bowl. No egg yet but it has only been about 18 hours since the first one.

 

[TX Chick Noob]

Goldy finally laid her second egg today, after several days of "practicing" lol. It had a proper shell this time. It was 1.6 oz, so a little smaller than the 2.2 oz first egg laid by Sassy a few hours earlier.

Here is Goldy and her egg.

 

[The Ranch Girl]

Goldy finally laid her second egg today, after several days of "practicing" lol. It had a proper shell this time. It was 1.6 oz, so a little smaller than the 2.2 oz first egg laid by Sassy a few hours later.

Here is Goldy and her egg.
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yay congrats! that is always so exciting

 

[Idaho Chicken Bungalow]

Congratulations! It's common for first time layers to be inconsistent. At least in my experience!

 

[Mrs. K]

Congratulations! It's common for first time layers to be inconsistent. At least in my experience!

^^^^ Not a calcium deficiency. Just getting started, just getting if figured out.

Mrs K