Weird big egg?

[Couture Family]

Could these eggs be from the same chicken? The larger one is her very first egg (yesterday) and the smaller one was from today. Isn't the smaller egg normally the first egg?

Which one will be her normal size egg?



Also do chickens lay at the same time everyday?

 

[Kelsie2290]

Congratulations on your first eggs! They could be from the same girl. I wonder if the big egg is a double egg? They are pretty common with pullets just starting to lay. Pullets just starting will lay all kinds of weird eggs, besides really big ones or small ones, tiny ones without yolks/ wind eggs, the double yolked ones, shell-less ones etc. The first eggs on average are small, then if she is in good condition and fed well etc, the size she lays gets gradually larger as she keeps laying until they hit normal size for her breed, the charts for the commercial breeds usually say it takes them about 2-3 months. So her normal egg size will probably be between the two eggs. The biggest average eggs they will lay are usually when they start laying again after their first molt.
What time of day they lay depends on their cycle, most of the papers say that an egg cycle is about 25 hours, so the average hen will lay a little later each day until she skips a day, and then starts over. But some hens have been bred for heavy production so their laying cycle is shorter, and they will lay closer to the same time every day for quite a while (think some of the commercial breeds like White Leghorns or the Red Sex Links that will lay an egg a day for months at a time).

 

[Couture Family]

So my Barred Plymouth Rock has been laying for three days but didn't lay today is this her start over day already?
Also I've asked on other post but I will ask since you kindly responded; could my hen that laid that weird egg have laid two soft ones for her very first eggs then skipped a day to lay that weird large one? I found two soft eggs in the coop under the roost where they sleep. I also found a normal one from my Barred Plymouth Rock that same day (it was her first egg). So wasn't sure if she laid the two soft ones at night then her normal one that morning.

But since you suggest that the large one may be double maybe my Wyandotte laid the two soft ones then skipped to lay the double one???

 

[Couture Family]

Brilliant! You were absolutely right

I couldn't stand the suspense so I had to open that egg and look and it was just as you said, a double egg. Thanks mystery solved!

 

[Kelsie2290]

Congratulations on your first double egg! They are a nice surprise Shell-less eggs are also pretty common when pullets start to lay, they can be for various reasons, their shell gland is not quite mature enough, their system is just not in gear yet and the egg moves through too fast, they drop more than one yolk in a day (also how you get doubles) etc. So those soft shelled eggs could have come from either or both of them, no way to really know... hopefully they should mostly stop laying them in the next month or two, they are usually nothing to worry in new layers.