Mini Egg

[11mini]

Second time in one week I have found a tiny egg in the nest box.

Shell looks normal but is 1/4 size. As far as I know my GSL is the only one laying yet, she has been averaging 6 eggs/week for the last two months. They are normally large brown eggs. Then last week I found one small egg, I thought it might be my Buckeye's first egg but I doubt it now. I have gotten two small eggs in 5 days and only one large. I searched the coop and did not find any eggs or signs of being eaten. The GSL just started laying this summer, is this normal for a young hen to lay a few tiny ones?

 

[Kelsie2290]

Those look like what people call wind/fart/rooster eggs, they are usually just a glitch in the egg laying system when a small piece of reproductive tissue breaks away and is treated it like a yolk and a shell is formed around it. They are pretty common in old birds, brand new layers or birds just stopping or starting a laying cycle, sometimes they just seem to show up randomly. It is rather odd that if it is the young GSL laying them that she laid fine for two months and is now starting to lay a lot of these, you wouldn't expect her to molt now /stop laying for the winter.. The occasional one usually isn't anything to worry about, if you get a hen laying a lot of them, especially an older bird, it may be signaling the end of her egg laying. Don't know that there is anything special you can do about them. The only way I can see figuring out who is laying them is to keep the hens caged separately.

 

[11mini]

I had her for 1 week before she laid the first egg and that was mid-July, so I'm guessing she is around 8-9 months? If in fact that was her first egg and it wasn't just because of the new environment? She weighs 5lbs.

The feathers missing on her back were like that (even worse) when I got her. I assumed it was from a rooster. they are growing back now.

 

[11mini]

Today she laid a normal size egg - but it was right before they roosted up? It was really late after 6pm. I had just put them back in the run after letting them out after work about 5:15 or so. Maybe I should search the yard.