Ummm... is this a normal glitch?

[MochaLatte]

Hi all -

One of my chickens, Zoingo, started laying 11 days ago. Her eggs have been consistent (she only took 2 days off between her 2nd and 3rd egg and has been laying daily without a break since...) she lays between 6am-10am usually in her favorite nest box. These are her recent eggs (the back left is a different girl's first egg from yesterday!) They eat Purina All Flock with free choice oyster shell and occasional mealworm treats/scratch.


She laid her egg normally yesterday morning at 7am. Last night at midnight, she hopped off of the roost and laid an egg 15 seconds later underneath in the roost bedding... then hopped back up and went to bed. I didn't realize this had happened, and some of the younger girls found it before I got out there. It was a normal size for her and complete/strong shell.

However... around 8:30am, her "normal" laying time, Zoingo went into her favorite nest box and laid a connected, soft shelled double egg. I know that 8 hours is not long enough for her to form a normal/hard shell so the soft exterior is not a surprise... but is it normal for a new layer to be expelling this many eggs? I am just a little worried for her.

She is eating and drinking as usual and acting totally fine... I'm just hoping that she takes some time off.

I know new layer glitches are to be expected... but can anyone tell me if this is normal?

 

[theoldchick]

You can see all kinds of eggs with pullets just starting to lay. Keep an eye on her to make sure she gets back to normal.

 

[cherrynberry]

Hi all -

One of my chickens, Zoingo, started laying 11 days ago. Her eggs have been consistent (she only took 2 days off between her 2nd and 3rd egg and has been laying daily without a break since...) she lays between 6am-10am usually in her favorite nest box. These are her recent eggs (the back left is a different girl's first egg from yesterday!) They eat Purina All Flock with free choice oyster shell and occasional mealworm treats/scratch.
View attachment 2836229

She laid her egg normally yesterday morning at 7am. Last night at midnight, she hopped off of the roost and laid an egg 15 seconds later underneath in the roost bedding... then hopped back up and went to bed. I didn't realize this had happened, and some of the younger girls found it before I got out there. It was a normal size for her and complete/strong shell.
View attachment 2836228
However... around 8:30am, her "normal" laying time, Zoingo went into her favorite nest box and laid a connected, soft shelled double egg. I know that 8 hours is not long enough for her to form a normal/hard shell so the soft exterior is not a surprise... but is it normal for a new layer to be expelling this many eggs? I am just a little worried for her.
View attachment 2836231View attachment 2836232
She is eating and drinking as usual and acting totally fine... I'm just hoping that she takes some time off.

I know new layer glitches are to be expected... but can anyone tell me if this is normal?

Looks like a glitch to me. A year ago, I had a new layer lay 2 soft eggs back to back. She is now laying consistently and no more soft eggs.

 

[MochaLatte]

Looks like a glitch to me. A year ago, I had a new layer lay 2 soft eggs back to back. She is now laying consistently and no more soft eggs.

Thank you! I told myself I wasn't going to be a crazy lady asking if weird new-layer eggs were normal but I couldn't help it

 

[Cindosha]

Hi all -

One of my chickens, Zoingo, started laying 11 days ago. Her eggs have been consistent (she only took 2 days off between her 2nd and 3rd egg and has been laying daily without a break since...) she lays between 6am-10am usually in her favorite nest box. These are her recent eggs (the back left is a different girl's first egg from yesterday!) They eat Purina All Flock with free choice oyster shell and occasional mealworm treats/scratch.
View attachment 2836229

She laid her egg normally yesterday morning at 7am. Last night at midnight, she hopped off of the roost and laid an egg 15 seconds later underneath in the roost bedding... then hopped back up and went to bed. I didn't realize this had happened, and some of the younger girls found it before I got out there. It was a normal size for her and complete/strong shell.
View attachment 2836228
However... around 8:30am, her "normal" laying time, Zoingo went into her favorite nest box and laid a connected, soft shelled double egg. I know that 8 hours is not long enough for her to form a normal/hard shell so the soft exterior is not a surprise... but is it normal for a new layer to be expelling this many eggs? I am just a little worried for her.
View attachment 2836231View attachment 2836232
She is eating and drinking as usual and acting totally fine... I'm just hoping that she takes some time off.

I know new layer glitches are to be expected... but can anyone tell me if this is normal?

My hen did the exact same thing for her first egg(s). It looked like she laid two back to back. This was on 10/3/21 and she hasn't laid one since.

 

[TylerBareneckChickens]

I have 5 girls laying now... 3 of them laid their first eggs in corners under the roost or on the coop floor in dug out bowls... sigh. What worked for me was kind of stalking them the next day and when they start acting like they are wanting to lay... I gently place them into a nest box and then leave them alone. One laid in a nest box right after I put her in, and the other 2 left the nest box but returned later to lay their eggs in the right place! Do you have fakie eggs in your boxes?

One of my chickens lays her egg on the couch that the dogs sit down on. She will lay that egg when the dogs are laying right next to her. Sometimes she will kick the dogs off the couch first, sometimes not. I think we might have held her too much when she was a chick. She likes to chase the dogs around the yard sometimes too.

 

[Cindosha]

It's crazy what these girls go through when they start laying! I got another almost identical connected egg(except smaller) from another girl just the other day and I was like "oh I've seen this before... old news now, I'm not even gonna post about it this time..."

It's killing me...I want eggs I can eat. LOL!!! None of the others have laid any yet but I'm sure that will happen now in the next couple of weeks (I hope anyway!!) Now if I can just teach them not to lay them in the poop box from their roosting bar and lay them in the beautiful nesting boxes I made for them......Stinkers!!!

 

[MochaLatte]

It's killing me...I want eggs I can eat. LOL!!! None of the others have laid any yet but I'm sure that will happen now in the next couple of weeks (I hope anyway!!) Now if I can just teach them not to lay them in the poop box from their roosting bar and lay them in the beautiful nesting boxes I made for them......Stinkers!!!

I have 5 girls laying now... 3 of them laid their first eggs in corners under the roost or on the coop floor in dug out bowls... sigh. What worked for me was kind of stalking them the next day and when they start acting like they are wanting to lay... I gently place them into a nest box and then leave them alone. One laid in a nest box right after I put her in, and the other 2 left the nest box but returned later to lay their eggs in the right place! Do you have fakie eggs in your boxes?

 

[MochaLatte]

Deets on the camera???

I have Arlo cameras - got them on a REALLY good deal a couple Black Friday sales ago... they have great images. I took one from garage view to put in the coop when we got the chicks! Also they alert you to motion and you can set "activity zones" where you want notifications. It saves videos for 30 days... you can download any you want to keep. Here's how well the night vision works:

And some other funny things I've caught on it... like one of my EE's first egg lay! (Quality looks less here because I turned it into a GIF and zoomed it haha)

And my favorite place to stalk all day... nest boxes!

 

[MochaLatte]

You can see all kinds of eggs with pullets just starting to lay. Keep an eye on her to make sure she gets back to normal.

Thanks! I certainly will be.