One chicken, occasionally two eggs a night one hard shell one soft?

[confused chicken]

One chicken, about once a week two eggs a night, one hard shell one soft, I find them in the morning. They are always on the floor of the coop, the normal one is about halfway between her roost pole and the door, the soft shell one is always underneath her roost like she laid it in her sleep?? She also doesn't lay during the day before I find them? She has plenty of shell grit and the normal days her eggs are 100% and in one of her nests. First time I found them I thought "that's weird why did she lay on the floor, why didn't I see it yesterday, opened the coop human door, huh there's two???" Second time "that's weird, I know I looked on the floor yesterday and there's two again". Third time "Why the .... is she doing this" it's happened at least 4 or 5 times

I believed all birds could only lay one egg a day?

Thoughts?

Thx.

 

[azygous]

Two eggs per cycle is more common than people think. Over fifteen years of keeping chickens, this has happened with my hens on occasion. The first time it happened, it surprised the heck out of me, too. A hen was egg bound, I treated her for it, and after passing a hard shell egg, an hour later she passed a soft one.

If you can identify the hen, she can be treated with a calcium supplement. This can reset the egg cycle to release a single yolk instead of two in quick succession. It's important to rectify this anomaly because this can get the hen into a lot of trouble if one egg gets stuck or collapses inside her.

Get some calcium citrate. I get it in the vitamin section at Walmart if you're in the US. One whole tablet per day directly into the beak (she'll swallow no problem) until eggs are being laid one at a time each cycle with a good shell. It shouldn't need to be more than a week or two to achieve this.

 

[Ridgerunner]

That is not a calcium deficiency though more calcium shouldn't hurt, it could help. A hen is supposed to release one yolk a day to make an egg. And there are triggers for when she releases that yolk so the egg will be laid during daylight hours. Occasionally a hen may mess up and get that wrong. If it is a rare occurrence I just consider that an oops. We are all entitled to an occasional oops. It's when it becomes a regular thing that it becomes a problem.

If a hen releases two yolks at one time to start the internal egg making process you can get a double yolked egg. Some hens are more prone to that than others, but most of us have probably gotten a double yolked egg. They are not that unusual. If she releases two yolks in a day but they are separated a bit in time she can lay two eggs in one day. Since she may make a limited amount of shell material in a day the second one is often thin-shelled or soft-shelled. This sounds like what is happening to yours. Often does not mean always, but often when they do this they skip laying the next day.

There are certain triggers that tell the hen when to release a yolk to start the egg making process. If she is laying one egg a day, when she lays that egg triggers her releasing a yolk for the next day's egg. Of course they sometimes skip a day. Another trigger to release a yolk is light. It takes about 25 hours for most hens for an egg going from yolk release to an egg being laid. I'm sure there are other triggers but am not sure what they are but I'm confident nutrition may be one.

So what can you do? Calcium is not a root cause of this but feeding this hen extra calcium might firm up the eggshell a bit on that second egg. In things like this I try to determine if it is a flockwide problem or an individual hen problem. I don't want to mess up the flock by treating them when nothing is wrong with them.

Since light is one of the triggers how standard and consistent is the lighting? Are you supplementing lights? Do lights come on at different time at night, like a security light or even street light. Are they getting sufficient dark down time at night. Different hens can be affected differently by that, that's why only one may be affected.

How much protein are they getting? I'm going to go counter to the advice you see on here for practically any problem. I'm not suggesting you increase the protein. Quite differently, one of the things that I've read that can cause releasing extra yolks is that the protein content of their feed is too high. If you are feeding a high protein feed to them you might consider reducing the protein content a bit. See if that helps.

What I think is the root cause is that you have a defective hen. Her instincts just aren't quite right. You can try some of these things, they may help but it may be something you live with or you eliminate the hen from your flock.

I wish I had better news for you.

 

[Mrs. K]

What I think is the root cause is that you have a defective hen. Her instincts just aren't quite right. You can try some of these things, they may help but it may be something you live with or you eliminate the hen from your flock.

I agree, unless your birds are starving, wormy, or limited health for other reasons, a lot of egg laying is much more genetic than feed. There really is not a lot you can do to change it.
In my experience, soft shells happen, and sometimes happen for a while, and they get over it whether you change the diet or not. It is a glitch. A lot of people seem to spend a lot of time doctoring their birds. I do not. But I do have good water, good shelter, and good basic laying food. No one dies because they drink a pop and have potato chips.

While the basic diet is important,

Mrs K

 

[confused chicken]

That is not a calcium deficiency though more calcium shouldn't hurt, it could help. A hen is supposed to release one yolk a day to make an egg. And there are triggers for when she releases that yolk so the egg will be laid during daylight hours. Occasionally a hen may mess up and get that wrong. If it is a rare occurrence I just consider that an oops. We are all entitled to an occasional oops. It's when it becomes a regular thing that it becomes a problem.

If a hen releases two yolks at one time to start the internal egg making process you can get a double yolked egg. Some hens are more prone to that than others, but most of us have probably gotten a double yolked egg. They are not that unusual. If she releases two yolks in a day but they are separated a bit in time she can lay two eggs in one day. Since she may make a limited amount of shell material in a day the second one is often thin-shelled or soft-shelled. This sounds like what is happening to yours. Often does not mean always, but often when they do this they skip laying the next day.

There are certain triggers that tell the hen when to release a yolk to start the egg making process. If she is laying one egg a day, when she lays that egg triggers her releasing a yolk for the next day's egg. Of course they sometimes skip a day. Another trigger to release a yolk is light. It takes about 25 hours for most hens for an egg going from yolk release to an egg being laid. I'm sure there are other triggers but am not sure what they are but I'm confident nutrition may be one.

So what can you do? Calcium is not a root cause of this but feeding this hen extra calcium might firm up the eggshell a bit on that second egg. In things like this I try to determine if it is a flockwide problem or an individual hen problem. I don't want to mess up the flock by treating them when nothing is wrong with them.

Since light is one of the triggers how standard and consistent is the lighting? Are you supplementing lights? Do lights come on at different time at night, like a security light or even street light. Are they getting sufficient dark down time at night. Different hens can be affected differently by that, that's why only one may be affected.

How much protein are they getting? I'm going to go counter to the advice you see on here for practically any problem. I'm not suggesting you increase the protein. Quite differently, one of the things that I've read that can cause releasing extra yolks is that the protein content of their feed is too high. If you are feeding a high protein feed to them you might consider reducing the protein content a bit. See if that helps.

What I think is the root cause is that you have a defective hen. Her instincts just aren't quite right. You can try some of these things, they may help but it may be something you live with or you eliminate the hen from your flock.

I wish I had better news for you.

Its free range, it's in mid Fl, and its alone, the rest got eaten /-: well coons so only their heads ?-: and she double layed last night again?