Was this an attempt at a first egg?

[ATGATT]

While checking my coop for eggs the other day, I found what looks like a flattened soft egg. It had a hole in it, which may have been from chickens walking on it, but I don't see any sign of yolk or whites on it.
Does anyone have a clue what it is, such as a first attempt at laying an egg or possibly an old snake egg. I realize the snake egg is a bit of a longshot, but I recently opened a new pack of pine shavings and wondered if it could have somehow ended up in the bag.

Thank you for the help.

 

[ATGATT]

About two hours after posting this question, I went to check on my chickens and found another. It was in fact an attempt at laying in egg. The one I found today had yolk on it and was soft like the other. The shell, if you could call it that, was soft and flexible with a bit of grittiness to it.

So, I guess my question is; is there a calcium deficiency or is it normal for a chicken's first eggs to be soft?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

It's quite normal for pullets to lay a few soft shelled eggs, and just as normal for them to be eaten. It doesn't have anything to do with calcium, it usually is from stress or happens when the system is starting up or shutting down. It should straighten out in the coming days or weeks, usually by the second week things start to normalize.

 

[FarmerTony]

Ive had some soft shell and very thin shell eggs before. Usually new pullets or once when I threw out Sorghum/Sudangrass that was (unbeknownst to me) treated with herbicide.

 

[ATGATT]

No more soft broken eggs! I'm still not sure what the problem was, but after purchasing a bag of calcium and oyster shells, the problem was resolved in about a week. Two or three of the eggs with solid shells were very thin and porous. Since the shell is a barrier to bacteria, I threw them out. Except one which grew mold on the outside within a few days. Yay experiments!

 

[chickens really]

With my young Pullets I have to trick/train them to eat the oyster shell....I mix a bit of feed and a little scratch with the oyster shell and the pullets then begin to eat it...I do that till I know they are eating it.....


Cheers!

 

[twilightgecko]

i have 4 of my flock that have started laying.. 2 australorps and 2 barred rocks.. all eggs have been perfect, brown and really good eats.. i keep a bowl of oyster shell in their coop and i figure they will eat it as they need it.. mostly it gets dumped and they love to scratch for it..

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Oyster shell consumption will be very low when they start laying. As they start to pull calcium out of their own bones they will really start to crave it and they start to consume more. Too much calcium in their diet will cause bumpy calcium deposits on the eggs. They do consume it as needed and their consumption goes up and down throughout the year. Keep the bowl full and don't worry about it.

 

[ATGATT]

Thank you everybody for all of the input. I really appreciate being able to hear how others raise chickens

 

[twilightgecko]

Thank you everybody for all of the input. I really appreciate being able to hear how others raise chickens

i agree.. i appreciate the wisdom of others.. learning a lot as i'm a newbie to this chicken thing.. but i love it..