Question about laid eggs

[donrae]

I'm wondering if someone can help me out.. I have 3 ladies. 2 Ameraucanas and 1 Production Red. My oldest Ameracauna layed her first egg last Tuesday, then Wednesday, skipped Thursday and layed a third on Friday. She hasn't layed since then, no trauma, no stress (well besides popping an egg out), plenty of fresh water and food. Meanwhile our PR started laying on Sunday and we've got an egg from her everyday. They are only 6 1/2 mo. Is this normal behavior?

Irregular laying is very common with a new layer. They lay erratically, they lay eggs with no shells, they do all sorts of weird things until their system gets into full production mode

 

[bellsbeauties]

Sorry for this nothing message, just wanted to subscribe to this tread... I love the information about keeping eggs out of the refrigerator.

 

[elizabethzw]

Any thoughts on where hens prefer to lay eggs? I hAve a new flock and am letting them roam around the yard. Before I turned them out, I had at least 1 hen who was laying an egg every day. Once they got out, I didn't get an egg for over a week. I figure she found another place to lay but I've not been able to find it. Do they prefer to be under something like the porch or out in the sun someplace?

 

[Gaberdini]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/nadiaar...egal-in-a-british-supermarket-and-vice-versa/

https://www.newsociety.com/blog/2013/Should-farm-fresh-eggs-be-washed

https://pubs.ext.vt.edu/2902/2902-1091/2902-1091_pdf.pdf

 

[tantricdragon13]

Any thoughts on where hens prefer to lay eggs? I hAve a new flock and am letting them roam around the yard. Before I turned them out, I had at least 1 hen who was laying an egg every day. Once they got out, I didn't get an egg for over a week. I figure she found another place to lay but I've not been able to find it. Do they prefer to be under something like the porch or out in the sun someplace?

While growing up, we had our hens free ranging, and we could hardly get them to lay in the coop. We found eggs everywhere! The dog bed, hay bales, empty cat carriers, empty cages, the goat shed, the front porch, even nests on the ground out in the woods!

 

[evemfoster]

Ages ago when i worked in a hatchery in Northwest Washington state we would get people comeing down from Alaska to buy eggs. They were picking them up for eating and would buy several cases at a time. Enough to last until the next summer.

They would sit out in the parking lot and check the eggs for cracks then smear shortening onto every egg. The shortening sealed the air out prevented the eggs from drying out, keeping down the spoilage. They said that by the following spring they would sometimes have a lot of bad eggs but that was mainly because the eggs had frozen and the shells had cracked. So as long as they could keep the cracked eggs frozen they would be fine. There were story's about digging down into the permafrost to try preserving the eggs when a large percentage of eggs had gotten frozen and cracked during the winter.

When asked how the eggs were when nearly a year old they said they were fine if a little runny.