What's going on with my eggs/chickens?

[banananutmuffin]

I have a flock of 5 birds. Last week, one of them started laying. I got 4 hard eggs for four days in a row. The next two days, the eggs I got were soft-shelled/rubbery. (I do supplement their feed with oyster shell.) For three days now, I haven't gotten any eggs at all.

Is this normal for a bird that has just started laying? Is it possible that the chicken is now laying somewhere else (they are free range)? Or could it be that one of them is eating the eggs (especially since the shells started getting soft)?

Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[Impress]

Just a glitch in the egg laying system that they are getting down, imagine a chicken is an assembly line, and well, the shell applier was napping during training and hasn't been caught by the big boss man yet. They will iron out the kinks soon, it's totally normal.

 

[banananutmuffin]

Thanks! I thought that maybe since it was just starting to lay that a few hiccups might be normal, but I wasn't sure.

 

[LT]

I had the same exact thing happen with our first layer. She has been going strong now that she is almost three weeks in though.