New Egg Laying Questions

[WindcrestChickens]

Hi all....I started getting eggs last week...Woohoo! I was getting an egg a day....one day it would be a tiny egg, the next day a large egg. All of those alrge eggs have had double yolks. This seemed like maybe 2 different hens were laying? Or does eggs size vary from day to day?

Are the double yolks just a fluke?

On 2 of those days I got just a yolk in a thin membrane. Is this saing something is wrong, or is this just the newness of laying - something the hen will grow out of?


Now after a solid run of one egg every day, I have gotten nothing for 3 days. Excpet this morning I had another yolk in a membrane, and I had a full size egg in a soft membrane -no shell.

Anything I should be adding/changing now that they are laying?

Any ideas/input would be most welcome. Thanks...

 

[Heather J]

You need to get the birds on laying mix feed if they aren't already, or put out calcium supplement like crushed egg shells or oyster shell. Having them lay on and off like that is really common when they are new to laying, and even when they are more mature they won't all lay every day. Also, the abnormalities with the eggs, no white or no yolk, or double yolks, or other unusual combinations usually straighten themselves out after a while. It just takes a while for their bodies to get used to doing their jobs and becoming regular. Congrats on getting your first egg!

 

[redoak]

Do they have access to oyster shells? When my first hen started laying I had them still on starter for food and I got a couple very thin or no shelled eggs. Once I switched over to layer and put out oyster shells all my eggs have been thick shelled. My hens egg size varied greatly the first couple weeks. I only get a double yoker out of every 50 eggs.

 

[Gindee77]

We always feed their own egg shells back to them, well crushed so they don't recognize them as their eggs. And any eggs that have a blood spot, we scramble and mix the finely crushed shells in with and they LOVE it!!!

It's like a feeding frenzy! The shells help put back the calcium they use when they make a shell. The egg is good for them too. Even tho it's sort of cannibalistic!! YIKES!!

We also give ours layer mix and oyster shell grit.

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

Our chickens are almost a year old and every now and then we still find a "jelly egg" - egg without the shell. They are on layer feed and do get oyster shell. We also get at least one double-yolker a week. Fluky things happen but they sound normal to me.

 

[WindcrestChickens]

Thanks everyone. I went out and spent about a whole day working on the coop and the run today - me and the girls had a long chat about the crazy eggs.

I have been giving them their own egg shells back to them, but I will have to add to that since it has been so erratic....I willgo get some oyster grit.

We have them on the layer mash and they act like they've never been fed before. How much should they eat per day? We are almost done with the construction of a PVC pipe feeder that someone on here sent me the idea for...The kids are still decorating it - the hen house needs a little art.

Thanks again! I tried to post a pick of the first eggs, but I couldn't get it to work. Maybe soon....