Pullet Laying Issue

[revmichael]

I have 4 barred rocks - have had 1 soft egg out of one of them in the past week. We had some strong winds and heavy rain come through last night. I keep them in the coop of course but the wind was knocking down branches and such. I live in FL so it's not the snow or cold like other areas.

Thing is they usually lay after 10am - this morning I went to open things up - the front of coop is hardware cloth - but I put a door on it for bad weather. I noticed 3 eggs NOT in the nesting box. 1 was normal - 1 was soft and 1 looked undeveloped - yolk and white and an extremely thin shell. All the eggs were under their roost

Is this normal for them? They are 23 weeks old - should I add oyster shells?

They do not free range and have been on layer feed since 18 weeks old. I did manage one day to get 2 normal eggs out of the 4 of them. Could it have just been the storms stressing them last night??

 

[aart]

Stress can make for funky eggs......when they just start laying can make for funky eggs, sometimes it takes awhile for the egg machine to get tuned up and for them to settle into finding the nest when they need to lay.

What brand of layer feed?
What other foods?
4 hens and 1 nest? (2 nests might be better.)
Is there anything in the nest that might be bothering them...mites or other insects, snakes?

 

[revmichael]

using purina layena for feed - occassionally I give them grass clippings and weeds, about once a week I give them a few mealworms
was told 1 nest for the 4 would be plenty -
no mites or other insects or snakes in the nest

They usually lay later on in the morning and this was before 8 that they had layed them which seemed a bit odd for all 3

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

It's most likely just stress, but it could be disease. No sneezing or coughing or head shaking?

 

[revmichael]

no sneezing, coughing or head shaking at all - I check on them numerous times throughout the day and notice everything about them lol

I was wondering if it was possibly a combination of stormy weather last night and being so young, they just started to lay last week (at least 1-2 have)

 

[aart]

If they just started to lay last week......it can take a month for them to get in the groove, and even then sometimes you just a get weird egg.

1 nest for 4 hens is the ratio recommended but sometimes it helps to have 2 options....if it's easy to add a nest I would.
You can put some golf balls or fake eggs in the nests to help show them where to lay.

I leave 2 golf balls in each 4 nests all the time and 9 hens use all the nests, there doesn't seem to be a favorite or any waiting in line.

Give your girls time, they (and you) will figure it out. They do funny things that don't make sense sometimes, it's almost always amusing and occasionally alarming, but usually OK.

 

[revmichael]

well it looks like all 4 are now laying - had one who is VERY vocal walking around most of late afternoon and she just laid her egg - so with the 3 this morning looks like all 4 are now laying - which can explain the soft shell and almost no shell eggs this morning - a few days ago ended up with a soft shell egg from one of them - need to go get an artificial egg to put in the nest and see how that goes.

The nesting box I made is 24 inches wide so I'll probably divide it in half and made 2 nesting boxes out of it so they can have 2 spaced. The one who just laid her egg is moody for sure - another pullet when up to see what was going on and boy did she squak at her

took just over 1 week for a dozen of usable eggs - lost 2 a few days ago (1 soft and another broken) and now the 2 this morning so not too bad

thank you everyone for the advice and help