Multiple soft eggs over night

That probably isn’t good as chickens can only lay an egg a day so maybe you missed one yesterday?

Not likely. Unless 10-week old pullets can lay (which I doubt). I got a perfect blue egg yesterday in the nesting box. Last night these two eggs were left where my layers sleep and then this morning a perfect brown egg in the nesting box.

As I said, the Americauna hadn't laid any eggs for several weeks. BTW, my Buff I posted about a few weeks ago ended up being egg bound. She had never been a good layer, but after that episode has consistently been giving me good eggs pretty much every other day.
 
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Not likely. Unless 10-week old pullets can lay (which I doubt). I got a perfect blue egg yesterday in the nesting box. Last night these two eggs were left where my layers sleep and then this morning a perfect brown egg in the nesting box.
Uh I don’t know what to say. Chickens literally cannot lay two eggs a day so I don’t know how your other hen layed two. That is so weird.
 
Uh I don’t know what to say. Chickens literally cannot lay two eggs a day so I don’t know how your other hen layed two. That is so weird.

I completely agree. That being said, if both of them did it, then I'm inclined to lean toward a calcium deficiency. They're both behaving normally, so I don't think it's anything serious.
 
Uh I don’t know what to say. Chickens literally cannot lay two eggs a day so I don’t know how your other hen layed two. That is so weird.

I read that as well, but know there can exceptions to this rule. This spring I had a hen lay an egg in the late afternoon on day 1, and then lay a second egg first thing in the morning of day 2 -- so somewhere around 12 to 14 hours apart. She did this on two different occasions. She is the only blue layer in that coop, so I know the eggs were hers. The first time it happened, I observed her laying the afternoon egg, collected it, and then found a second egg in the box when I opened up the coop in the morning. The eggs had normal shells. I can't explain it, but I know it happened.

I've also had a new layer last fall, struggle quite a bit when she came into lay during a heat wave. She dropped out 1 thin-shelled and 2 soft shelled eggs during the course of one afternoon.

I don't think these are normal egg laying behaviors, and probably indicate something a bit amiss with the pullets. Both of the hens I mentioned above are still laying -- the blue layer settled into the normal 6 days on, 1 off pattern, and the other hen is pretty regular, although she still tends to struggle in hot weather with thin shelled and shel less eggs. Both hens also lay huge eggs, occasional double-yolked eggs, and have that ratty look of over-achieving hens for whom laying is taking a lot out of them.

In your case, I would be inclined to think that is stress, rather than a calcium deficiency. Putting some electrolytes or nutradrench in their water for a couple of days wouldn't hurt. Other than that, I would watch and wait, and hope her system stabilizes.
 
I should add, there is no harm in switching over to layer feed to see if the extra calcium makes a difference. But, in my experience, if oyster shells are readily available and a hen is still laying thin shelled eggs, some thing else is going on.
 
I read that as well, but know there can exceptions to this rule. This spring I had a hen lay an egg in the late afternoon on day 1, and then lay a second egg first thing in the morning of day 2 -- so somewhere around 12 to 14 hours apart. She did this on two different occasions. She is the only blue layer in that coop, so I know the eggs were hers. The first time it happened, I observed her laying the afternoon egg, collected it, and then found a second egg in the box when I opened up the coop in the morning. The eggs had normal shells. I can't explain it, but I know it happened.

I've also had a new layer last fall, struggle quite a bit when she came into lay during a heat wave. She dropped out 1 thin-shelled and 2 soft shelled eggs during the course of one afternoon.

I don't think these are normal egg laying behaviors, and probably indicate something a bit amiss with the pullets. Both of the hens I mentioned above are still laying -- the blue layer settled into the normal 6 days on, 1 off pattern, and the other hen is pretty regular, although she still tends to struggle in hot weather with thin shelled and shel less eggs. Both hens also lay huge eggs, occasional double-yolked eggs, and have that ratty look of over-achieving hens for whom laying is taking a lot out of them.

In your case, I would be inclined to think that is stress, rather than a calcium deficiency. Putting some electrolytes or nutradrench in their water for a couple of days wouldn't hurt. Other than that, I would watch and wait, and hope her system stabilizes.


Thank you. That's what I'm thinking as well. It's been a very weird, sort of stressful several weeks with the one senior dying, the other one getting egg bound and the new pullets all at once.
 
I should add, there is no harm in switching over to layer feed to see if the extra calcium makes a difference. But, in my experience, if oyster shells are readily available and a hen is still laying thin shelled eggs, some thing else is going on.
I'm concerned that the calcium in the layer feed will hurt the kidneys of the pullets.
 
I forgot that you had 10 week old pullets.


And FWIW, the older girls are doing really well. The Americauna especially. Her comb and waddles are a nice red (they were a little pale while she was molting). Maybe they just needed to get back on to their regular laying schedule and this softshell episode was to just get them in sync.
 
Glad things are smoothing out for you, a lot going on.

The Americauna especially. Her comb and waddles are a nice red (they were a little pale while she was molting).
Curious why a bird would be molting this time of year....unless you live in the southern hemisphere?

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