Hen laying 2 abnormal eggs a day. What's wrong??

[Sparkleyhead]

I have a year and 2 month old buff Orpington that has had a dramatic change in egg laying. When I got her in the fall she was laying beautiful XL eggs almost daily, even through the winter (natural egg laying breaks included). But now for the past month or 2 she has been having serious issues. First she was laying really deformed eggs with ridiculously thin shells. Then she started laying some regular shaped eggs, lacking the protective coating, in random places (i.e. on the chicken coop ramp, on the floor of the coop, outside in the middle of the yard, in a dirt flower bed). Twice, I actually saw her squat, squeeze out the egg in the yard, and walk away. It's almost like egg incontinence. Now she has been laying 2 eggs in less than 24 hours. When I let them out in the morning I will find one egg she laid during the night and then a few hours later I will find another one she laid in the nesting boxes. It is always the deformed one that she lays in the nesting box and the normal egg lacking the protective coating that is laid randomly. Why is she doing this?? How can I help her???

Btw I know they are HER eggs because I only have 2 laying hens and the other one lays teal eggs.

As far as I can tell she is healthy: bright eyed, alert, very active, no lameness, huge appetite. I even wormed all of them in the beginning of May. Help please!

Her egg on left in February, other hen's in middle, store bought on right.


What they look like now. Same egg different angles.

 

[aart]

I had a hen who did this for several months, I chalked it up to a glitch in the system and possibly a partial molt, seems to have stopped now.

Lots of things in the flock can cause stress and funky eggs, sometimes it's not an obvious (to us) stressor.
As long as they are getting a good balanced diet, with calcium for the layers, I'd not worry about it.

 

[Sparkleyhead]

Thank you, this makes me feel better. Cadbury has a tremendous personality and I would hate it if something was really wrong with her. That is why I wanted to ask and make sure. I was wondering if it might have something to do with molting. I have had her for 8 months now and I have yet to see her molt, even partially, which concerns me. As far as her diet goes, I'd say it is pretty well rounded. She gets layer food, has a huge run full of grasses, weeds and bugs to eat. And my blueberry bushes, which she and the other chickens have taken as a personal challenge to pick clean.

Maybe the heat is stressing her out. I live in Maryland, and the seasons here don't believe in transitions. Right around when Spring was deciding whether it wanted to be 68 or 90, was when I started noticing the weird eggs. Maybe once she gets adjusted to the heat she will be ok again.

Pretty much sums it up