Question on egg production;

[nao57]

So...wanted to ask this.

Some of my ducks and chickens have barely started laying eggs.

And as part of that process some of them are coming out half formed.

I don't know how to interpret this. Is this because they are just young layers? Or is there also malnutrition and more vitamin stuff needed?

And how would you tell which?

Today I got 2 half formed eggs, but I'm not too surprised because the one just started laying literally less than a week ago. But then sometimes I'm not sure if the half formed one from yesterday was hers, or the other birds. And the other bird is technically pretty young also.

When the eggs come out half formed is it pretty much unsafe to eat these? (I would suspect it would be, but if you are cooking them they are being sterilized anyway? One came out soft shelled but intact and with no exposure, so I wasn't sure about this if there's no break with the air.)

 

[Ruby Rogue]

What does a half formed egg look like?

 

[chub_the_chick]

Can you post a picture so I can see the eggs?

 

[Aapomp831]

It is normal for chickens to lay wonky eggs when they first start laying. Are you providing them with layer feed and free choice oyster shells? As long as you’re doing that, their reproductive systems should work themselves out: they are just getting started so abnormalities are normal.

 

[nao57]

What does a half formed egg look like?

Darn. I already destroyed it, not wanting to risk it.

I will get a pic tomorrow. Sorry.

It looked like a deflated balloon sort of. But there wasn't a hole going through it. The shell was a bit thinner and not quite transparent also. I'll try to get a pic tomorrow.

 

[ChicMomof10]

We got one like that, wrinkled and oblong with very soft shell. I broke it into a dish and it was a very small yolk with thin runny white. Looked funky but okay so I dumped it into the rest of the eggs and made scrambled eggs. No one's sick here.

 

[Mrs. K]

If you use the egg very quickly, within a day, and you cook the egg, it is perfectly fine. I think you are getting soft shells - and that is pretty normal in any circumstance, and will work itself out. People tend to think immediately it is diet... and they should add something, and do so and the eggs become normal. That must have been the problem, but the truth of the matter, it will straighten up if you do nothing.

The calcium added to layer feed is not for egg shells, but rather for good bones and life for the chicken. Unless the chicken is being starved to death, it will take calcium from either the diet, or their body stores in the bones. Humans do that too, the trick is to keep the bones with enough calcium in them, not a day to day, but over the long term. Not for egg production, that will go on but for long term health.

So it is important to have a calcium source for the birds, but it is for their health, not egg shells. Because they produce eggshells, they have a higher need.

So my point being, if you have a good quality feed, you are fine, a little time and this will work itself out.

Mrs K

 

[3KillerBs]

When I had my in-town flock I would eat the occasional soft-shelled egg if it was clean, fresh, and fully-cooked.

I wouldn't have eaten one picked out of the poop or poached with the yolk still liquid.

 

[Mrs. K]

^^good point about being clean, - and if they don't make the trip to the house. Mine are often dropped in the dog dish - but if desperate for an egg, in baking for example. I would use this.