Underdeveloped egg!

[TheRobinsons]

Hi chicken friends...I'm new to this, one out of my 5 girls are laying eggs. She's laid 4 beautiful small blue eggs over the last 5 days. Today however, I came upon her 4th blue egg and one underdeveloped egg that has no shell. It's being held together by the inner membrane which is very fragile and squishy but is missing it's normal protective outer shell. Is this normal? I have a feeling both were layed by the same chicken one right after the other. I have given them oyster shells to nibble on however I'm doubtful she is eating very much if at all.

Please shed some light on what I can do to avoid this or whether this is just a normal abnormality that can happen at the beginning of the egg-laying stage. Thanks!

 

[aart]

Not unusual, it's called a 'softshell'.... but it actually has no shell just the membrane like you described.
..and they can lay 2 in a day, one is often softshelled.

New layers can lay some funky looking eggs for the first month or so...nothing to worry about.

 

[TheRobinsons]

Thanks Aart. Are soft shells safe to eat? We figured we'd cook it up and feed it to our birds just to be on the safe side. These creatures never fail to amaze me!!!

 

[aart]

You could cook it up and feed it to the birds...or just bust it open on the ground and they will eat it up just like that.

Often when I've found softshell eggs I only find the membrane remains or a wet spot, as they break easily upon inspection by the birds and they chow it down.

This will not lead to egg eating in most cases.......
.......a broken egg in the coop is fair game for them eating it, it doesn't mean they will start breaking and eating normal shelled eggs.