Two eggs from one pullet on poop board

[ladybuglives]

Hello!
My big (fat) Buff Orp Mama Pajama (she'll be a hen on 4/21) -- top of the pecking order-- has been going several days to weeks without laying. Twice she has laid two eggs on the poop board at night after her hiatus. One of the eggs is soft and one is normal. She doesn't act egg bound when she isn't laying -- eats, runs around, drinks water but she starts the whole process off by going in the nest box and sitting for a while with no luck. She emerges panting and then goes about her day. Then for days -- nothing. Then two eggs on the poop board at night! I am concerned that she needs something I'm not giving her (they all get ACV in H2O and Modesto Millings Organic feed along with greens and their treats are things like cracked wheat berries, sunflower seeds, millet, scrambled eggs, raw ground beef). Any ideas??? Do chickens sometimes have problems with their muscles that push the egg out???? Peristalsis?

Thanks,
Lisa
Humboldt County, CA

 

[Yay Chicks!]

The only thing I can think to ask is if they are being offered supplimental calcium (oyster shell or ground egg shells). A soft shelled egg can be more difficult to push out which may be causing the delay.

 

[ladybuglives]

Yep they get oyster shells and calcium. I actually think the first egg out was the hard one because when she wasn't laying but had tried I oiled up my gloved finger and stuck it in her vent to see if she was egg bound. There was an egg but pretty far up. That was two days ago soooo... my thought is that it was the first egg and then the next was thankfully soft so as to not hurt her.

 

[Yay Chicks!]

I don't know if this will be helpful at all, but it's a link to a pretty cool chart on egg shell quality. I had a soft shelled egg from my Buff last night as well, but i think it was related to having her isolated for a couple of days to break her from picking at my Barred Rock... Anyway, here's the link:

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/979/maintaining-egg-shell-quality

 

[ladybuglives]

OMG! What a great link you sent me!!! It explains exactly what is happening to Mama! It's also what I intuitively thought -- she's retaining the egg in her egg gland longer than usual (I wonder if the pounding rain is the culprit as far as stressors to make her do this). Then she ovulates again and the next egg doesn't stay in the egg gland long enough to get hard -- hence the soft shell. I am going to bookmark this link and send it to folks with egg probs because it has a lot of great info -- thanks again!!!!!!

Lisa

 

[Yay Chicks!]

Glad it was helpful

It's one of those great links that have been floating around on here.