Solved the Mystery of the Rubber Egg!!!!!!!!

[chickenmomva]

Since we are having trouble with the mean rooster I have been in the yard alot more...........saw one of my debeaked girls walking funny and she dropped an egg in the run........it was of course the soft squishly one like I have been finding in the coop.........we got her out and put her in a pen to herself........went out to go to town about an hour later and she had laid another one in the pen.......

I know that is unusal.......obviously this is a chicken problem........I thought chickens laid once a day ........if we decide to do away with her is it ok to eat her??????

 

[Chelly]

If she is not laying good eggs, I dont' know how good an idea it would be to eat her - she might not be well!
Best to figure out what the problem is I would think.

 

[jaseg]

I'm no expert but try giving your hen a seperate dish with oyster shells in it. It sounds as though she does not have enough calcium in her diet.

 

[silkiechicken]

I think she would be fine to eat... in a stew, but I would prsonally let her eat tons of oyster shells and she should start laying well again.

 

[chickenmomva]

So laying 2 eggs that are abnormal with in hours of eachother is OK???????

 

[kico166]

My girls have had free access to oyster shells since they started laying.

When they first started laying I some of those (last Sept).
They are on an egg layer mash with vitamins and such.

They are now 14 months old. I've had a couple dirty backends - bathed and trimmed to get that off.

This morning, I had one egg that was fine except for a small area on the bigger end of the egg that was soft. The inside was fine - fed it to my dogs.

Mine are now sort of molting. Does this explain the change?
Or would the hotter weather (near 90 the past few days) be the reason?

Edited to add: I was told the average hen will lay 1 egg every 18 to 36 hours and
a really good hen will lay one egg per day.