My bantam cochin hen, Duchess (aka my pride and joy) was SUPPOSED to have the day off from laying today. Yes, I am a geek who keeps a laying chart and knows when her chickens should lay...
Background: Duchess is a girl that I bought as a young adult of unspecified age. From the time I bought her about 6 months ago she has layed an egg for two days in a row, then skipped a day. Egg for two, skipped a day. This continued until about 3 weeks ago when she began to molt. She molted hard and heavy for 14 days and then resumed the ritual of laying. Her molt consisted of her not looking any different, but her coop/run were COVERED with feathers. She is housed alone due to her tiny size and getting picked on by the others, but she can interact through the fencing and often gets to free range for an hour or so in the evenings with the others. Her feed is layer pellets, oyster shell, and occasionally chick starter if she bogarts it from the chicks nearby. She has constant sun access except when she goes in the coop to either lay or sleep at night. Health-wise she is fine. No sickness. Her eggs have increased in size maybe by a minute margin since she molted.
So, this morning I went out to feed the birdies knowing not to expect an egg from her at all today: she layed Thursday mid-day and Friday late afternoon, so Saturday is her day off. I look in her run and there is an egg! I pick it up and immediately realize it is completely shell-less with the membrane intact. Basically, it looks just like a regular egg, just off-color and without a shell.
What could have caused this? She is not a new layer...could it be the recent molt?
Background: Duchess is a girl that I bought as a young adult of unspecified age. From the time I bought her about 6 months ago she has layed an egg for two days in a row, then skipped a day. Egg for two, skipped a day. This continued until about 3 weeks ago when she began to molt. She molted hard and heavy for 14 days and then resumed the ritual of laying. Her molt consisted of her not looking any different, but her coop/run were COVERED with feathers. She is housed alone due to her tiny size and getting picked on by the others, but she can interact through the fencing and often gets to free range for an hour or so in the evenings with the others. Her feed is layer pellets, oyster shell, and occasionally chick starter if she bogarts it from the chicks nearby. She has constant sun access except when she goes in the coop to either lay or sleep at night. Health-wise she is fine. No sickness. Her eggs have increased in size maybe by a minute margin since she molted.
So, this morning I went out to feed the birdies knowing not to expect an egg from her at all today: she layed Thursday mid-day and Friday late afternoon, so Saturday is her day off. I look in her run and there is an egg! I pick it up and immediately realize it is completely shell-less with the membrane intact. Basically, it looks just like a regular egg, just off-color and without a shell.
What could have caused this? She is not a new layer...could it be the recent molt?
