Tiny, Tiny Egg

[Barry Natchitoches]

I have only full sized chickens -- no bantams.


Today, I found a teny, tiny egg in one of the nests.


The egg is fully formed and the correct egg color for my brown egg layers.


But it is only 1 and 1/8 inch long, and weighs only 3/8 of an ounce.


I haven't cracked it open yet to see what is inside the perfectly formed little shell.


I figure it was probably laid by one of my two pre-teens. I have two 18 week old Delaware pullets. Since all my other hens are older, more mature pullets or hens, I figure it must have been laid by one of the 18 week old Delawares.

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

Yep, a "fart egg". common amongst youngsters just starting to lay.

 

[swordgeek]

I once got an egg like that out of my red cap, who had been laying for some time already. It was adorable! She was also responsible for laying the most enormous egg I've ever seen come out of my hens. I wouldn't be concerned - it happens.

 

[Ohhhdear]

I had one of those teeny eggs two weeks ago; it was entirely eggwhite, no yolk at all. However, the day before I found an absolutely enormous double-jumbo double yolker.
Best advice I've heard is that for the first month or two, newly laying hens often lay weird eggs, no matter what the breed. Softshell, no shell, extra-hard shell, square, rippled shells, huge, tiny... takes a while for the internal egg laying mechanism to work properly.
Make sure they're on a good laying formula feed, give them lots of extra calcium (eggshell or oyster shell) and all the good stuff birds like to eat.

 

[basketballndl]

The second egg my silkie ever layed was no bigger than a nickel