laying on the roost?

[top of the hill]

Hi all! Interesting thing happened this weekend... my newly laying RIR laid 2 eggs off the roost. One Saturday, the other Sunday. Both broke (obviously) and were soft shelled. Has this happened to anyone before? I am blaming the late morning as the girls have been sleeping till 7:30. We've since installed a timer to turn lights on at 5am... hopefully this will help. Not sure why eggs are soft, they have access to oystershell and get plenty of healthy treats. Suggestions are always welcome. Thanks!

 

[Yay Chicks!]

It happens, especially with new layers sometimes. I have one that still does it once in a while.

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

I looked it up lots of places, a few claimed that disturbing the hens' sleep delays calcification of the eggshells, ie' predators making noise at night, henpecking for roost space, lights, etc.

So I built another roost so they'd squabble less over who sleeps where, and the eggshells have become hard again.

 

[cmom]

Yay Chicks! :

It happens, especially with new layers sometimes. I have one that still does it once in a while.

I agree...​

 

[epeloquin]

I just found a shellless egg below the roost last night.

I have a theory. I theorize that when a hen has a shellless egg come down their egg canal it is more likely to come out because it doesn't have the hard shell that requires the hen to actually push it out. I saw one of my girls lay an egg the other day and when she actually laid the egg she stood up and I could see her pressing down until the egg dropped. If there is no shell, and the egg is soft and flexible, maybe it would just drop. Their muscles are designed to push out, not hold in.

Just my theory.

 

[top of the hill]

6chickens in St. Charles :

I looked it up lots of places, a few claimed that disturbing the hens' sleep delays calcification of the eggshells, ie' predators making noise at night, henpecking for roost space, lights, etc.

So I built another roost so they'd squabble less over who sleeps where, and the eggshells have become hard again.

This is interesting, she has been getting picked on by a couple of the other girls. perhaps I should add another roost.​

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

Quote:
This is interesting, she has been getting picked on by a couple of the other girls. perhaps I should add another roost.

DH had shown me an article online about EggDrop disease, he thought that was the problem, but a sidebar in that article mentioned the sleep disturbance issue. Lucky for us, it worked.

I hope it works for you too!