I found one of these wonders of the chicken world tonight when I went to tuck the girls in for the night. It was a perfectly shaped pullet egg, just soft. Like one of those rubbery stress squeeze balls.
The pullets are all between 21 and 22 weeks old, and most are not laying yet, so I am hoping it is just the new layer working out the glitches in the egg system, but I thought I would ask a few questions. I did search for "soft shelled egg" first and read all of those posts. A few of them are laying and their eggs are so hard I have to hit them multiple times to get them to crack (so this isn't a flockwide thing). They are on layer feed since around 18 weeks. They also have oyster shell available to them in a PVC gravity tube feeder. I also feed them ground shells in the run with their morning scratch. They are not acting funny, no one seems ill, they don't appear to have mites or fleas (I know they are ubiquitous, but at least there is no infestation to speak of), no one looks like they are molting (not that I would recognize it as new as I am to chickens), and everyone's poo seems to be within the normal ranges.
Anything else I should consider or be watching for?
Can you eat a soft shelled egg if it is intact?
The pullets are all between 21 and 22 weeks old, and most are not laying yet, so I am hoping it is just the new layer working out the glitches in the egg system, but I thought I would ask a few questions. I did search for "soft shelled egg" first and read all of those posts. A few of them are laying and their eggs are so hard I have to hit them multiple times to get them to crack (so this isn't a flockwide thing). They are on layer feed since around 18 weeks. They also have oyster shell available to them in a PVC gravity tube feeder. I also feed them ground shells in the run with their morning scratch. They are not acting funny, no one seems ill, they don't appear to have mites or fleas (I know they are ubiquitous, but at least there is no infestation to speak of), no one looks like they are molting (not that I would recognize it as new as I am to chickens), and everyone's poo seems to be within the normal ranges.
Anything else I should consider or be watching for?
Can you eat a soft shelled egg if it is intact?