Soft Egg Question - Solved?

[Tango Charlie]

I'm new to chickenry so I hope I can bring an outsider's eye to this issue. Every day our birds lay 7 perfect eggs, between 7am and 10am. (Period.) This morning whilst feeding and freshening their water, I thought "May as well pop open the ol' nesting box and see if anybody's gotten at it early?" when I found a full-sized, soft, semi-translucent, *cold* egg.

Naturally I jumped on the interwebs to see what this was about and I found a lot of varied diagnoses; the most popular being they don't get enough calcium.

I say... One of the girls simply dropped an unfinished egg in the middle of the night. What say you?

 

[azygous]

To clarify, this soft egg was in addition to seven eggs from seven hens the preceding day?

If so, you need to try to identify which hen this was from. She may be laying two eggs per 25 hour cycle. That can spell trouble as soft eggs sometimes get stuck and/or collapse inside the hen.

This means you will need to spy on the hens to try to see which one lays the soft egg in addition to the normal egg. Calcium supplement, at least 500mg per day, can help reset the release of ovum back to one per cycle.

Look for any hen that is sluggish, droopy, fluffed up, tail down, perhaps has watery poop. That would be your problem hen.

 

[aart]

I'm new to chickenry so I hope I can bring an outsider's eye to this issue. Every day our birds lay 7 perfect eggs, between 7am and 10am. (Period.) This morning whilst feeding and freshening their water, I thought "May as well pop open the ol' nesting box and see if anybody's gotten at it early?" when I found a full-sized, soft, semi-translucent, *cold* egg.

Naturally I jumped on the interwebs to see what this was about and I found a lot of varied diagnoses; the most popular being they don't get enough calcium.

I say... One of the girls simply dropped an unfinished egg in the middle of the night. What say you?

IMO, it's probably a glitch and no need to panic.
She may have laid it early in the morning, rather than the middle of the night.
Not unusual for a newish layers to drop a few softies.
How old are your birds, in weeks, and how long have they been laying??
How many birds?
What all and how exactly are you feeding?

Oh, and.... Welcome to BYC! @Tango Charlie
Where in this world are you located?
Climate, and time of year, is almost always a factor.
Please add your general geographical location to your profile.
It's easy to do, and then it's always there!

 

[Ridgerunner]

So it was actually in the nest, not dropped from the roost at night. How much light do you have in the coop at night? Can a hen see to go to the nest? Unless you have some light she would have dropped it from the roost if it were actually laid at night. If it were that cold and you were that early it was probably laid just before bedtime. Since you are so convinced yours only lay in the morning you probably didn't look in the nest. There are plenty of studies out there that show if you are not looking for something you often won't see it.

A hen's internal egg making factory is pretty complicated. Sometimes they have glitches. If a hen releases two yolks at the same time instead of one she can lay a double yolked egg. If she releases two yolks the same day but they are spread out, she might lay two eggs in one day. Her body may only make enough shell material for one egg in a day so the second one can be thin-shelled or soft shelled. Often if they lay two in one day they skip the next day. Often, not always.

If it is a rare thing I consider it just a glitch. I feel we are all entitled to an occasional oops. Pullets just starting to lay or pretty old hens can have these issues more often than others, but any of them can do something like this. As complicated as that internal egg-making factory is the surprise is that so many get it so right consistently.

If it is a one time event, I don't bat an eye, just an unfortunate glitch. If it is a regular event and your other egg shells are consistently good, there is something wrong with that individual hen. When I have issues I try to determine if it is a flock issue or an individual issue. That way I don't mess up the rest of the flock because of one defective hen.

If it is a regular event come back and we can discuss it some more. If your other egg shells are consistently pretty thin we can discuss that more. But if this is a one time event and your other egg shells are fine, what you are doing is working.

 

[Tango Charlie]

Thanks to everyone. I ended up with 6 of my normal 7 eggs that afternoon, so my guess is one of my girls laid the unfinished egg, the previous night. And, we've had 7 each day since. The use their nesting boxes exclusively, even though they do get a few hours complete freedom on an acre each day. (The other hours are in a 30'x15' fenced run... which is pretty nice to begin with!)

Regarding the breeds, I *think* I've determined I have 4 Red Sex Links and 4 Barred Rock. They were labeled as Buff Orpington's and Black Sex Links at TSC... so it's been an interesting several months! Black Sex Link roosters look like Barred Rock hens, so I was freaking out there for a while. I'll post pics later on. Possibly on a different thread.

They all (7 of them at least) started laying at about 4 months, and have been crazy consistent! I'd say they've been laying for about 4 weeks now. We're in the Mid South, so nice and warm (read: hot)

Thanks again-
Tango Charlie