Mystery of a fourth egg....

[kscottjoyce]

Hey there,
So I have three RIR hens. For the past few days I have been wondering why I can only find 2 eggs in the coop. I figured they found somewhere in the yard to lay a couple. Today I eventually did get three eggs again. I left the house for a few hours and came back to find that a fourth egg had been laid and the shell was eaten from it by the hens. Does anyone know of an explanation of how a fourth egg could have been laid?

 

[sune42]

Not sure why you got 4, but you may have only gotten two before because you have an egg eater. Do they get calcium supplement?

 

[kscottjoyce]

I give them layer feed which I was told that contains the proper amount of calcium for layers.

 

[EssexGirl]

Do you know for sure that your hens ate the shell (evidence of pieces of broken shell, insides broken)? If the inside was whole, it could be that one of them laid a soft-shelled egg. They don't always lay an egg each every day, and then it is possible (but unusual) to get a soft-shelled egg even after they've already laid a normal egg.

 

[BrattishTaz]

It is possible for a hen to lay two eggs in one day. It sounds like someone's "conveyor belt" was a little out of whack.

I would keep an eye on them to make sure nobody becomes eggbound or has any other laying issues.

I would let one egg eating incident go (the egg may have been broken accidently) but if you see it again you will have to take action. Search for "egg eating" to pull up more info.