My Buff Orpington's eggs are getting SMALLER!! HELP!

[jefferiesgang]

i have a Buff Orpington that stopped laying for a while when the light in our coop burned out. We fixed it. After a while she started laying again. The eggs were smaller than they had been, but today I got a tiny one from her. They seem to be getting smaller every day. What might be going on? All of our other chickens are laying like usual, no change or reduction in size. Let me know if you have any info that may help me. Thanks!

 

[hen-thusiast]

First of all, let me say

- I live on the east bench of the Salt Lake Valley. There is a whole thread of Utahns here, you should come say hi. We're always happy to welcome another one.

I really have no idea why her eggs might be getting smaller, so hopefully someone else jumps on here. I wouldn't think that it is nutrition related since you said the others are not experiencing the same thing. How small was the one today? We got a fart egg once and it was smaller than a quarter.

Has she lost a lot of weight? A smaller body mass could justify a smaller egg. Is she bottom of the pecking order or maybe finishing up a rough molt? It has been a bit chilly here for Utah and maybe she just wasn't getting enough calories?

Or maybe her body is just trying to readjust to laying again? I'm sure it's pretty traumatic to their systems to go from all that artificial light to no artificial light and back to artificial lighting again. Maybe her body is more susceptible than the others to the dramatic changes made in the lighting? Did any of the other BOs stop laying when the light burned out or was it just her?

Just out of curiosity, how old is she? Good luck!

 

[Cindiloohoo]

Maybe it's a feed issue? Changed the feed lately, or too much corn not enough protein... maybe someone else will chime in that has experienced this.

 

[jefferiesgang]

All of our chickens were born in late March 2009. We only have one BO, we also have a 1- RSL, 1- BSL, 1- RIR, 4 Araucanas. She (the BO) hasn't lost any weight and no one picks on her. We have not changed feed. I give them fruit and vegetable peelings and apple cores as well as some scratch each morning. She seems to eat well. I guess we'll just give it some time and see if her eggs start to get bigger again. I hope she's ok. Thanks for your responses. I'm new to all of this and learning tons.

 

[cobrien]

Are you feeding layer feed in addition to what you listed?

 

[FortWorthChicks]

I wondered the same?

 

[jefferiesgang]

20% protein layer feed since last summer. Today I got an egg from the same chicken, it was covered in yolky yellow stuff completely, not like another egg broke on it. There was the same yellow yolky stuff near her vent. (My neighbors must wonder what the heck I'm doing checking her out down there.) It was stuck to the pine shavings and feathers. I wanted to check it out closer so I tried to pull off the wood chips and the shell was so thin it pulled away from the membrane. I cracked it open and it was just like normal, just smaller. I ate it, and it hasn't killed me yet. I'm going to get some oyster shell today and see if this helps with her other issues as well. I thought that they had all taken care of themselves the other day when she layed a normal sized egg again.

 

[Wynette]

I wonder if the use of artificial light to force prolonged laying has anything to do with it? It's not natural for them to lay year 'round; maybe she just needs a break. JMO.

 

[MIKE555444]

I know they are not suppose to moult the first year but I have a flock of BO and NHR that hatched march 2009 and for some reason I found a few of them moulting bad about 2 weeks ago.

Maybe she is entering a moult and her eggs cycle is ending until after the moult?

 

[hen-thusiast]

Quote:
I'm thinking it has to do with the artificial light as well.