Soft egg

[suebeedoo]

I have 4 mature isa browns and 5 young light sussex 4 months old. Today I got the shock of my life when i went to collect the eggs there was only one and it looked like it only had a membrane and was popped.

Is this a sign of sickness or could it be one of the young Sussex starting to produce I thought that chickens didnt start laying till they were about 8 month old?

Its obviously very difficult to be there at laying time and see who the culprit is... Any advice would be very greatfully recieved.

Thank you

 

[Judy]

They start laying at pretty widely varying ages, depending on breed, breeding, and the individual. The average for birds bred to produce a lot of eggs (hatchery birds) is usually quoted as around 20 weeks -- but 17 weeks is not unheard of. I have 10 birds and have only had birds around 3 years for this flock, but have one who started the day before she was 17 weeks. Hopefully the soft shelled egg is just a fluke of early laying; it often takes them a month or so to get the whole egg laying thing right. If they are eating a grower feed, it even makes some sense, since layer has more calcium for making strong egg shells. If they were mine, I'd switch them all to layer if I hadn't already, plus put a Tums in the water once or twice (not every day) for a calcium boost.