Two "Is this normal" questions...

[Yay Chicks!]

My four girls started laying this past week. The BO has been very consistent with perfect little eggs. The BR laid her first today and the shell is a bit thin. One EE has laid pinkish eggs twice, but both eggs have had cracks and thin shells (my question are not, however, about thin shells). The other EE laid a perfect bluish green egg...last Friday and nothing since. Hence my first question:

1) Is it normal for a pullet to lay her first egg and then go days (3 in this case) without laying one? Any cause for concern yet? I want to qualify that there are no hidden eggs and no one seems interested in eating eggs.

2) I pick up and hold 3 out of 4 of my girls regularly - the other one really avoids it - and they seem lighter to me. Do they burn quite a few calories when laying, thus perhaps making this a normal situation? They don't seem to really be eating any more than they were right before laying. What would I be feeling in terms of, say, quantity of keel bone and such if they were underweight? And again, to qualify, they look and act fine.

Thank you.

 

[palochknldy]

Two of our girls starting laying in late July and seem to lay for 4-5 days and then take a day off. Our BR layed a soft egg 2nd week in Aug, nothing until the 3rd week(another soft one) and layed the 27th and now again today. Just trying to get the plumbing worked out I guess.
Not sure about your second question but I probably wouldn't be too concerned unless you see alot of food not being eaten.

 

[9 Feathers Farm]

When chickens start to lay it is normal for a number of days to pass between laid eggs. Their bodies sometime take a while to get used to laying eggs. I had a chicken wait 30days before giving me a second egg. Don't worry about the weight issue, ther are now putting the energy from their food into making eggs, whereas before the energy of the food was used for muscle mass, ect.

 

[Yay Chicks!]

Thank you. I appreciate the responses. One more thing I can relax about.