- Sep 9, 2014
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Maybe they need answers. - we'll see!
We have a flock of seven - all April babies. One of each of many of the common breeds, one turned out to be a rooster... six hens.
Five of the six hens have been laying for about a month. Nice strong, regular eggs, been getting bigger and more regular every day.
Only our Australorpe hasn't laid any eggs yet... - we don't think.
Haven't been concerned at all. Her comb is much less developed than the others, she's only 5 months old now, she may just be a late bloomer.
Yesterday we got four eggs out of the five. Nice big strong eggs. After two days in a row of five eggs, we were happy.
Last night there was a rubber egg incident. I saw our Barred Rock hen running around with this whitish thing, in our barn aisle, while we were doing evening chores. Other hens wanted it too... it was a game of keep-away. I thought it was a piece of plastic or feed sack or something she shouldn't have, so I tried to catch her. Before I could catch her, she bolted it down... whole.
It was the empty sack of a rubber egg, we learned, moments later, seeing a the contents of it sitting there in the middle of the barn aisle, a fresh sunny-side-up double-yoke egg. None of the chickens were eating that. We called the dog to clean that up.
Questions:
Who likely laid the rubber egg? Our late blooming Australorpe who hasn't laid anything yet? Or the RI Red hen, who had not laid a regular egg that day... or one of the others who had laid good eggs already that day, and then also this malformed one? Do these come out as extras or 'instead-ofs'?
It did appear to be whitish in color... we only have one white egg chicken, and she's a good producing Leghorn who had already laid an egg.. do rubber eggs come out white or opaque? or would they be as brown as that hen's regular eggs?
It was not laid in the coop or in the nest boxes... we'd already checked there coming into the barn. It was laid somewhere else. Would it be laid in the middle of the aisle like that or did the chicken(s) carry it there?
Did they only want it because it was rubber? They've not wanted any of the other eggs, at least this far, and none were interested in the contents, only the rubber shell.
We do feed ground up egg shells back to the chickens, and we do see them pecking at it, in addition to their feed, and free ranging.
The other eggs we've gotten so far have great shells.
Fluke? Problem? Answers?
Will appreciate any informed speculation! 
We have a flock of seven - all April babies. One of each of many of the common breeds, one turned out to be a rooster... six hens.
Five of the six hens have been laying for about a month. Nice strong, regular eggs, been getting bigger and more regular every day.
Only our Australorpe hasn't laid any eggs yet... - we don't think.
Yesterday we got four eggs out of the five. Nice big strong eggs. After two days in a row of five eggs, we were happy.
Last night there was a rubber egg incident. I saw our Barred Rock hen running around with this whitish thing, in our barn aisle, while we were doing evening chores. Other hens wanted it too... it was a game of keep-away. I thought it was a piece of plastic or feed sack or something she shouldn't have, so I tried to catch her. Before I could catch her, she bolted it down... whole.
It was the empty sack of a rubber egg, we learned, moments later, seeing a the contents of it sitting there in the middle of the barn aisle, a fresh sunny-side-up double-yoke egg. None of the chickens were eating that. We called the dog to clean that up.
Questions:
Who likely laid the rubber egg? Our late blooming Australorpe who hasn't laid anything yet? Or the RI Red hen, who had not laid a regular egg that day... or one of the others who had laid good eggs already that day, and then also this malformed one? Do these come out as extras or 'instead-ofs'?
It did appear to be whitish in color... we only have one white egg chicken, and she's a good producing Leghorn who had already laid an egg.. do rubber eggs come out white or opaque? or would they be as brown as that hen's regular eggs?
It was not laid in the coop or in the nest boxes... we'd already checked there coming into the barn. It was laid somewhere else. Would it be laid in the middle of the aisle like that or did the chicken(s) carry it there?
Did they only want it because it was rubber? They've not wanted any of the other eggs, at least this far, and none were interested in the contents, only the rubber shell.
We do feed ground up egg shells back to the chickens, and we do see them pecking at it, in addition to their feed, and free ranging.
The other eggs we've gotten so far have great shells.
Fluke? Problem? Answers?
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