ticketism
Songster
Hey guys! So our two oldest Orpington pullets have both started laying, whoohoo! The first started at 18 weeks on the dot, and has given us perfect, well formed, amazing eggs almost every day since. Go Chai! She had one double yolker in the first fortnight, but other than that, always perfect. Her sister from the same hatch started at 22 weeks and has mainly given us perfect eggs, nearly every day, except maybe sometimes the shells aren't as thick as Chai's are. But that's cool, she's just new at this.
The other day though, I checked the nesting box in the morning to find two normal eggs, one from each. Then when I checked on them later that night (about 8:30pm), I saw something strange... There was three more eggs directly under Little Star (newer layer)! Once had a soft, slightly crunchy kinda shell, one had a soft shell like a jelly-filled water balloon, and had no shell at all! It was just egg white and yolk in the straw under the roost. They were all warm, and judging by that I'd guess she'd laid the 'crunchy' one first, then the 'jelly' one about 30 mins later, then the shell-less one probably just before I went down there.
I know new layers can have some weird occurrences to begin with, even soft shells, double yolks, and maybe twice a day... But one normal one in the morning and then three increasingly strange ones later at night, hours after going to bed? Is that within the realm of normal? She's been completely healthy, normal, happy, and laying perfect eggs daily again ever since, but I still wanted to check if that's just normal pullet stuff or if it's a sign of something I'm not aware of.
Here's a photo of that days offerings. Bottom left we have Chai's egg, bottom right is Little Star's normal morning egg, then top left is her 'crunchy' shell, top right the 'jelly' one, and under it, what I could pick up of the shell-less one.
Why so many eggs? Why so late at night?
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Thanks for any input everyone.
Cheers!
The other day though, I checked the nesting box in the morning to find two normal eggs, one from each. Then when I checked on them later that night (about 8:30pm), I saw something strange... There was three more eggs directly under Little Star (newer layer)! Once had a soft, slightly crunchy kinda shell, one had a soft shell like a jelly-filled water balloon, and had no shell at all! It was just egg white and yolk in the straw under the roost. They were all warm, and judging by that I'd guess she'd laid the 'crunchy' one first, then the 'jelly' one about 30 mins later, then the shell-less one probably just before I went down there.
I know new layers can have some weird occurrences to begin with, even soft shells, double yolks, and maybe twice a day... But one normal one in the morning and then three increasingly strange ones later at night, hours after going to bed? Is that within the realm of normal? She's been completely healthy, normal, happy, and laying perfect eggs daily again ever since, but I still wanted to check if that's just normal pullet stuff or if it's a sign of something I'm not aware of.
Here's a photo of that days offerings. Bottom left we have Chai's egg, bottom right is Little Star's normal morning egg, then top left is her 'crunchy' shell, top right the 'jelly' one, and under it, what I could pick up of the shell-less one.
Why so many eggs? Why so late at night?
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Thanks for any input everyone.
Cheers!