Bhapimama
Songster
I am new to raising chickens. I have four hens that I got as baby chicks from a local farm store. They are 19 weeks now. 2 EEs (Princess Laya and Hen Solo), a Barred Rock (Peep) and a Gold Laced Wyandotte (Pox). I have a little pre-fab henhouse in a 25x15' run. When I get home from work, and on weekends when I'm home, they get to free-range around the whole yard which is about 1/4 acre.
Laya laid her first egg 9 days ago and seems to have gotten the hang of it pretty quickly. She has laid consistently every morning for the last four days now. Her eggs are a little small, but otherwise they've all been normal.
Peep is the only other one showing the signs that she was ready to lay. A couple days after Laya got started, I found a yolk encased in a membrane just laying in the grass out in the middle of the yard along one of the little "beaten paths" frequented by people and pets alike. Then the evening before last, around 7 pm, I heard the "egg song" so I went outside and I couldn't find Peep anywhere. She's very good at camouflage with her speckled feathers, lol. She reappeared about 20 min later. I was suspicious that she was laying out in the yard somewhere. So last night I returned them to the run around 6:30 and sure enough, she went in the nesting box and laid an "egg"! It was shell-less but the shape and size of a normal egg. And then - I won't bore you with the details, but due to unusual circumstances, Peep spent the night alone in the henhouse. (The other girls were safe in the garden shed) When I let her out this morning, there was ANOTHER shell-less egg. It was kind of weirdly shaped and so fragile that it broke when I picked it up.
I'm wondering if this is normal or something I should be worried about. They are still on crumble, I bought the last bag about 2 wks before Laya's first egg. I told the person at the farm store how old they were and she suggested I go through one more bag of crumble before moving up to "layer's pellets".
Any insight and/or advice will be much appreciated!
Laya laid her first egg 9 days ago and seems to have gotten the hang of it pretty quickly. She has laid consistently every morning for the last four days now. Her eggs are a little small, but otherwise they've all been normal.
Peep is the only other one showing the signs that she was ready to lay. A couple days after Laya got started, I found a yolk encased in a membrane just laying in the grass out in the middle of the yard along one of the little "beaten paths" frequented by people and pets alike. Then the evening before last, around 7 pm, I heard the "egg song" so I went outside and I couldn't find Peep anywhere. She's very good at camouflage with her speckled feathers, lol. She reappeared about 20 min later. I was suspicious that she was laying out in the yard somewhere. So last night I returned them to the run around 6:30 and sure enough, she went in the nesting box and laid an "egg"! It was shell-less but the shape and size of a normal egg. And then - I won't bore you with the details, but due to unusual circumstances, Peep spent the night alone in the henhouse. (The other girls were safe in the garden shed) When I let her out this morning, there was ANOTHER shell-less egg. It was kind of weirdly shaped and so fragile that it broke when I picked it up.
I'm wondering if this is normal or something I should be worried about. They are still on crumble, I bought the last bag about 2 wks before Laya's first egg. I told the person at the farm store how old they were and she suggested I go through one more bag of crumble before moving up to "layer's pellets".
Any insight and/or advice will be much appreciated!
And yes, we do have decoy eggs in the nests
