Should I be concerned???

[Brenda Jones]

I have 3 pullets they are 22 weeks old. One has been laying since 17 weeks and the others since around 20 weeks. my 2nd in command (Marigold) has been laying since around 20 weeks - she started out with some soft shelled eggs , then she started laying JUMBO eggs with a nice shell. The past week I have found that she is laying Jumbo soft shelled eggs during the night or REALLY early in the morning (before 7am not every day though) and sometimes goes back and lays again around 10-10:30 am a smaller rounder egg, and you can see where there is a spot that has less calcium form (there is a ring of calcium build up around the spot). I gave them a treat of Greek yogurt with oyster shells yesterday and gave her specifically a calcium +D supplement this morning. I feed them a layer feed and have oyster she/egg shell mix set out free choice. She gets really stressed if my little girl (Matilda) tries to go into the nesting area to lay at the same time... I have had to put Matilda into a storage box and bring her into the house to lay as Marigold gets very aggressive. Marigold has also become aggressive with the food. She doesn't want Matilda to eat at the same time or out of the same dish as her, but she is not aggressive toward the top girl (Merisol). And Merisol has no problem sharing the dish with either of them. I put out 2 dishes and Marigold will go from one dish to the other eating and pecking at Matilda to keep her away. They all used to eat out of just 1 dish until just before they (the last 2) started laying. Should I be concerned about this behavior or the soft shelled eggs? Any suggestions / advice? 1st pic: on the left is eggs from the 23rd-26th (from Marigold only) on the right is the last 3 days (with 2 Jumbo soft shelled eggs found in the morning when I let them out) (I have hade about a dozen soft shelled/unusable eggs since Marigold and Matilda have started laying between the two of them, but I can discern them by the color usually as to who laid what)

 

[wf1992]

Try putting the second food dish out of sight of the first, so she can't protect them both.

I'm afraid I have no good advice about the eggs beyond the standard: she's just started and hopefully will sort herself out soon.

 

[aart]

How many birds total in how big of a coop and run, in feet by feet?
Space could be the issue, dimensions and pics would help here.
I can't imagine bringing a bird into the house to lay, not really a good idea/habit.

 

[Brenda Jones]

How many birds total in how big of a coop and run, in feet by feet?
Space could be the issue, dimensions and pics would help here.
I can't imagine bringing a bird into the house to lay, not really a good idea/habit.

The coop (roost and nesting area is pretty small in my opinion) just the nesting and roost area is about 3.5 w x3ft deep. I have 3 girls. The one with the issue is laying sometime in the night (between 11:30 pm when I check on them last & I go to let them out in the morning~7-7:30) and it is usually laid while she is on the roosting bar. She then goes back into the coop later in the day into her nesting box and lays another egg with a good shell. (smaller than the one without a shell). I have looked through the disease list and nothing fits that I have seen (thank the Lord), I am just worried that she is sick or something is wrong with her reproductive organs. Or she is not able to absorb the calcium or is not properly metabolizing the protein or some nutritional thing.

The one I bring into the house is very gentle, she gets into her box and lays her egg and softly chirps / purrs to let me know she's finished, I take her back outside and she joins her sisters and they are all happy. I am planning on building a larger coop in the spring with the roosting area further away from the nesting boxes and larger nesting boxes that are more separated from each other. The coop is in the garage and there is a door that leads to an enclosed run that I leave the outer door open during the day, so they can go into the yard as they please.