Soft egg laying under roost

[HenGirl2002]

Just had this yesterday morning! I think it is because they are asleep and they cant hold it in so it skips the part of harding the egg so they think it is a poo so they just poo it out!!

Thats what i think.

HenGirl2002

 

[deacons]

Well, I had two more rubber eggs this morning under the roost- these hit the ground and burst open, so I had to shoo everyone away this morning as they wanted to eat the yolks, which were laying in piles of poop. Yuck.

Based on where these were laying, it's clear they came from one of my Golden Laced Wyandotte pullets. They were laying almost on top of each other, so I am thinking they were from the same pullet, but can only narrow it down to two ladies who were sitting tightly bunched on the roost.

It has been almost 3 weeks since I wrote the first post, so I guess now I'll start to see if there is some sort of pattern to this- I did not have any strange eggs for three weeks, we'll see if it gets on some sort of cycle.

They have plenty of free choice oyster shell and are still on the same layer pellet, so not sure there's anything to change at this point. Will just continue watching.

 

[HenGirl2002]

Thats what happened to me!! They kept coming back to eat it!! cheeky hens!!

HenGirl2002

 

[lbrykowski2011]

I have a RIR that occasionally will lay from the roosting bar, sometimes it breaks and sometimes it don't. She will do this for 1-3 days and then just start laying in the nest box again, sometimes their just so weird and def unpredictable.

 

[Shabana]

I've watched my Leghorn (Lilly) lay a soft shelled egg. She generally is roosting but sometimes she will stand still puff her feathers up like a little football and drop her egg without barely squatting. She knows the difference for sure and lays her normal eggs in the nesting box.
I've really noticed a difference with the shorter days, it seems to be helping her lay less soft shells.
Hopefully she will stop laying soon and give her body a break

 

[LadyCluckington]

We had our first "rubber" egg today. It looked like a little deflated balloon...
Does anyone have any idea what causes this and what I can do to keep it from happening again?

 

[jdoane]

Make sure she's got free access to oyster shell or crushed up egg shells to make sure she's getting enough calcium.

 

[Shabana]

It is surprising how much Oyster shell they do actually use. Put it in a separate bowl so they choose to have it when they need it. Coming in and out of lay also can cause a blip like this.

 

[jdoane]

Mine prefer crushed egg shell. I mix them in with the oyster shell and they go through all the egg shell first. Any issue with that? They are cleaned and broken up. Just wondering if they provide as good calcium as the oyster shell?

 

[Shabana]

I use their shells too. I don't know if the calcium is the same but I put them in the oven to bake and kill nasties then smash them up.
You can also grind them to a dust if you need to sneak them some calcium when they are unwell etc and mix it into something they like