how long until egglaying levels out? and egg with rubbery shell?!

[kgdubois]

my hens are right at 19 weeks old & so far i've found three eggs -- one of these had a "shell" that was almost rubbery in texture (???) and the other two were perfect but small. i was wondering if anyone could tell me how long it will be until my hens start laying regularly according to their breed?

also, has anyone else had the rubbery shelled egg thing happen?! it was weird...

thanks!

 

[vjbakke]

We had one girl that took a few weeks, today we finally got a hard shell egg from her. I think a lot depends on the breed. Our RSL were regular from the start, laying just about every day, no soft eggs. Make sure free choice oyster shell is by the feeder. We also are feeding their shells back to them. Microwave for about a min then crush up and I put it by the oyster shell. They seem to like it better. They also like plain yogurt for a treat, gives them some extra calcium.

 

[kgdubois]

@ vjbakke = thank you! i'm feeding Layers ration, should i still add the oyster shell? i thought it was included in the feed...

 

[allpeepedout]

Mine started laying at 19 wks, and got in gear in a couple of weeks. I had at least two rubber eggs, plus some pecked eggs and eaten eggs, but now no apparent problems. It has taken a couple of months for eggs to get consistently larger, and now often everybody lays.

 

[Uniontown Poultry]

The small egg/soft egg is fairly common among new layers. They should come into their own & lay just fine within 3 weeks. Scattering some oyster shell in their pen or putting a feeder or hopper of it where they can take it as needed may help.

 

[joskt0204]

All of my eggs have been completely normal, although the Dominique lays smaller eggs, while the Black Australorpe started out laying what would be a large grocery store egg. My Americauna seems uninclined to lay. She still doesn't look nearly mature, although she is large, and she is 24 weeks, I think. The Dominique lays 2 days, then off 1 day. The Autralorpe has laid every day since she started. They each use a different nesting box, so it's easy to keep track.