more than one egg per day

[laruecharles]

I have six backyard chickens, 3 buff orpingtons and 3 barred rocks. They free range in my backyard all day long. They are almost one year old and lately some of them have been laying more than one egg. Twice now I've gotten 8 eggs from 6 chickens. I am able to give them organic grain and free trimmed vegetables daily from my community market. I am pleased to see that other people sometimes get more than one egg.

 

[azygous]

Two eggs a day may seem like a good thing, more is better, but not in the long run.

The calcium demand for putting a shell on an egg will quickly fall behind if the two eggs in one cycle continues. It can result is one normal egg, followed by an egg lacking shell quality or no shell at all.

This increases the risk of a stuck egg, which has the potential of ending the egg laying career of the hen.

I have one such hen, and a couple others that do this occasionally. When this happens, I give them one table of 400mg of calcium citrate or gluconate plus D3 for a couple of days. This seems to help them regulate the cycle back to one egg per 25 hours, and if they happen to be struggling with an egg that is hung up, it helps the hen pass it.