What's normal after passing rubber egg?

[babsi]

My hen was acting sick yesterday evening. I picked her up and egg yellow squirted out. I took her in and after applying a warm cloth she passed a rubber egg. I watched her for a while and put her to sleep in the coop. This morning she's free ranging and I added vitamins to the water. She pooped white liquid and is acting normal. Any suggestions?? She is 24 weeks and has laid 5 eggs with hard shells. I think part of it is that I overfed treats.

 

[BantamLover21]

I think what is "normal" varies with each bird. However, all of the times my hens have laid soft shelled eggs, they have been completely fine almost immediately. I would keep an eye on your hen for any further problems, but she should be okay. Sometimes new layers have some reproductive problems, including misshapen or malformed eggs. The vitamins in the water are a good idea. I would also make sure she is eating a balanced diet (not too many treats) of layer feed, possibly with crushed oystershell supplemented on the side.

 

[babsi]

Thanks, I just started them on layer feed and mixed it with the grower feed for transition. What and how often do you feed your chickens?

 

[BantamLover21]

Thanks, I just started them on layer feed and mixed it with the grower feed for transition. What and how often do you feed your chickens?

I feed my adult, laying chickens 16% protein layer feed from a local feed company. They always have feed available; I don't feed them just at certain times of day.

 

[aart]

Probably nothing to do with the treats, but might be good to keep them at a minimum for now.
Funky eggs can happen when they first start laying, can take up to a month or so for things to smooth out.

Rubber egg meaning.... no hard shell but contained within a membrane?
Pretty common along with thin shelled and big ole double yolkers.

The runny yolk coming out...and white liquid feces.... might make me more cautious
I might put her in an isolation crate for a day and night just to scope out her input and output.
I like to use a fold-able wire dog crate (24"L x 18"W x 21"H) with smaller mesh(1x2) on bottom of crate under tray.
Then you can put tray underneath crate to better observe droppings without it being stepped in.
If smaller mesh is carefully installed, tray can still be used inside crate.
Just keep a close eye on her.



I like to feed a flock raiser/grower/finisher 20% protein crumble full time to all ages and genders, as non-layers(chicks, males and molting birds) do not need the extra calcium that is in layer feed and chicks and molters can use the extra protein. Makes life much simpler to store and distribute one type of chow that everyone can eat. I do grind up the crumbles (in the blender) for the chicks for the first week or so.

The higher protein crumble also offsets the 8% protein scratch grains and other kitchen/garden scraps I like to offer. I adjust the amounts of other feeds to get the protein levels desired with varying situations.

Calcium should be available at all times for the layers, I use oyster shell mixed with rinsed, dried, crushed chicken egg shells in a separate container.

 

[babsi]

Today we have normal poop. Input out oyster shells about three weeks ago. She's ok, but eating up a storm. She's free ranging and scratching up a lot of area. Still doing the vitamin in the water, gave her powdered eggshell on just about six tiny pieces of spaghetti (cause I know she will eat those ). No egg for today.

 

[babsi]

Normal poop today, but no egg. It also snowed overnight and we got about 8 inches. I wouldn't want to lay either. So still waiting to see what tomorrow brings. She's acting normal, active, eating and alert. I keep hoping that I really is just being a new layer.

 

[babsi]

Got a nice hard shelled egg today! I will put this in the "she's a new pullet layer and things happen" file

 

[lilikoilady]

Queen Elsa's Rubber Egg
5/2/2017

She laid a perfect egg at 6:45 am in the nest box.
But at 6:45 pm playing in the yard she laid a rubber egg,
Then immediately turned around and pecked it broken.
My husband shooed her off and let our dog eat it.

3 days ago we moved of 3 week old chicks into our 1st coop
where her favorite nesting box was. She and her sister (road island reds) preferred that box and my other 2 Orpingtons preferred new coops boxes.

I've read that stress can cause shell less eggs but more likely they need oyster shells or crushed eggs shells. The latter I was told by my local feed store was old school and nobody does that any more?
This week I might have given them too much of my butternut squash quinoa mac & cheese that my husband didn't care for much. Maybe too much salt, though I didn't add salt as it's in the cheese. Been also giving them leftover food plus bananas & fresh lettuce, spinach, or broccoli. They get a small bowl after they've all laid their eggs about mid morning or by noon.

All 4 hens have been laying 4 eggs with strong hard shells since they were 5 months old and are now 6 months old. We live on Kauai so they get plenty Vitamin D.

Thanks for any advice or comments. This is our first experience. It's funny to worry about your chickens like they were your children.

 

[aart]

Queen Elsa's Rubber Egg
5/2/2017

She laid a perfect egg at 6:45 am in the nest box.
But at 6:45 pm playing in the yard she laid a rubber egg,
Then immediately turned around and pecked it broken.
My husband shooed her off and let our dog eat it.

3 days ago we moved of 3 week old chicks into our 1st coop
where her favorite nesting box was. She and her sister (road island reds) preferred that box and my other 2 Orpingtons preferred new coops boxes.

I've read that stress can cause shell less eggs but more likely they need oyster shells or crushed eggs shells. The latter I was told by my local feed store was old school and nobody does that any more?
This week I might have given them too much of my butternut squash quinoa mac & cheese that my husband didn't care for much. Maybe too much salt, though I didn't add salt as it's in the cheese. Been also giving them leftover food plus bananas & fresh lettuce, spinach, or broccoli. They get a small bowl after they've all laid their eggs about mid morning or by noon.

All 4 hens have been laying 4 eggs with strong hard shells since they were 5 months old and are now 6 months old. We live on Kauai so they get plenty Vitamin D.

Thanks for any advice or comments. This is our first experience. It's funny to worry about your chickens like they were your children.

Welcome to BYC!
Could be the stress of change (adding the chicks to the favorite nest box) chickens don't like change.
She's only been laying a month so may still be working out the kinks.
Diet could also be a factor....after a month she may be beginning to run low on calcium.
They may in fact need some oyster shell..depends on what chicken feed ration you are giving and how much other foods you are diluting that basic ration with.
Most folks provide a separate dish of oyster shell just in case they need it.