Hi- Untill today, in the four weeks that my 25 wk old hens have been laying I have had only 2 odd eggs. They were soft shelled. One soft shell was yesterday and it wasnt in a nest box so I assumed that I had a new layer. I have 18 hens 5 have been laying. I worried about starting the entire flock on layer and oyster shell when only the few had started laying but I did so about two weeks ago.
The problem is, today while one of the Red Stars was laying I heard the egg come out and loudly "clink" on another egg. Not the nice, normal tapping sound of two eggs hitting each other. I paused and waited for her to leave the nest box. There were 4 eggs in the box, the RS egg which was normal, another normal egg and 2 strange eggs. Its not so much how they look but how they feel and sound. They sound like hard, hollow plastic! Almost like terra cotta. The one large egg has a lot of calcium depostits on the shell and the smaller egg's shell is puckered and deformed.
Upon handling these eggs you could tell right away that they were not normal.
Again, my concern is how hard they feel and sound... like hollow terra cotta.
So I have cracked them open. They both cracked easily enough. The shells were a little thick but not what I would say abnormal. The large egg w/the external deposits seems to have tiny bubbles inside the shell and many strange deposits in the white.
The smaller, puckered shelled egg which really sounded like hard plastic looks perfectly normal inside... very large yolk.
Whats up with these eggs? Should I be concerned? Am I feeding them wrong??? They are all on a mix of Purina Layena crumbles & Dumor layer pellets and get kitchen scraps & a bit of scratch daily. Plently of fresh water and free choice oyster shell & grit.
Oh, and the soft shelled egg I found yesterday was very large, was not in a nest box ( I have never had one lay outside of a nest box ) it was actually under the roost and it had two splits in the upper facing shell so I could see the yolk inside. It didnt looked pecked at all, just split open and it was on top of the shavings, not in any indentation like someone had nested. Once opened it looked normal. I suspect that it was my Lt. Brahma's first egg because she didnt come out of the coop she kind of stayed by the egg...
Thanks in advance for your help and opinions
The next two pics are the inside of the large egg
The problem is, today while one of the Red Stars was laying I heard the egg come out and loudly "clink" on another egg. Not the nice, normal tapping sound of two eggs hitting each other. I paused and waited for her to leave the nest box. There were 4 eggs in the box, the RS egg which was normal, another normal egg and 2 strange eggs. Its not so much how they look but how they feel and sound. They sound like hard, hollow plastic! Almost like terra cotta. The one large egg has a lot of calcium depostits on the shell and the smaller egg's shell is puckered and deformed.
Upon handling these eggs you could tell right away that they were not normal.
Again, my concern is how hard they feel and sound... like hollow terra cotta.
So I have cracked them open. They both cracked easily enough. The shells were a little thick but not what I would say abnormal. The large egg w/the external deposits seems to have tiny bubbles inside the shell and many strange deposits in the white.
The smaller, puckered shelled egg which really sounded like hard plastic looks perfectly normal inside... very large yolk.
Whats up with these eggs? Should I be concerned? Am I feeding them wrong??? They are all on a mix of Purina Layena crumbles & Dumor layer pellets and get kitchen scraps & a bit of scratch daily. Plently of fresh water and free choice oyster shell & grit.
Oh, and the soft shelled egg I found yesterday was very large, was not in a nest box ( I have never had one lay outside of a nest box ) it was actually under the roost and it had two splits in the upper facing shell so I could see the yolk inside. It didnt looked pecked at all, just split open and it was on top of the shavings, not in any indentation like someone had nested. Once opened it looked normal. I suspect that it was my Lt. Brahma's first egg because she didnt come out of the coop she kind of stayed by the egg...
Thanks in advance for your help and opinions
The next two pics are the inside of the large egg
