2009 Omlet cube and run for sale

[bluekarin]

A couple of days ago Cocoa laid her usual brown egg in the morning. As the day went on I noticed she wasn't her usual inquisitive self and was beinf very quiet so I was starting to get a bit worried. ED picked her up and then hastily put her back down as she had pooped on her leg. So I followed her into the run as she'd hidden under some branches when she fluffed herself up huge and laid a soft egg. Before I could get to it Moonshine had a bit of a peck but not too much. Whilst disposing of the softie, I get a shout from the garden that she's laid another one! And then she was back to herself again!

 

I am in the process of worming them, and I have been cutting back their treats lots, so am wondering why this happened.

 

And it also got me to thinking, do chickens have a few eggs at various stages of develpment inside them?

[Lewis]

We had a day like this before, I have no idea how it happened because in theory it just can't, we had 5 chickens and 14 eggs! and they all laid eggs the days before and after so they were left overs from before

[Plum]

[carrie]

Hi this morning our light sussex had laid 2 perfectly formed but very sofy shelled eggs, they were found under the perch so must have taken her by surprise.

[cavysqueak]

I was washing up today & my husband called me out into the garden. He had found a softie in the middle of a flower bed (well mud patch thanks to the chickens!) - but we had already had out requisite 3 eggs! And they've never even looked like they would lay anywhere but in the nest!

 

I'm glad to hear that everyone else has experienced the same problem, it is reassuring.

 

We'll wait to see if they give us 3 eggs still tomorrow!

[Aga n Chickens]

Hello

 

We've had a full house from all 4 of our chooks all month so far.

 

This morning I collected 2 eggs from the nest box and found 2 burst soft shelled under the roost bars.

 

I checked to see if it could have been the same egg, but there were 2 yolks and the eggs were a distance from each other so either 2 hens had been scared in the night or had perhaps eaten something that the shouldn't have.

 

I didn't expect to find any more eggs today, but this afternoon I heard a familiar noise and found another egg in the nest box !

 

Before I read this thread I was concerned but now it seems quite common at this time of the year.

 

Regards,

 

Christine

[Aga n Chickens]

Update.....

 

Sacco, (one of our gingers) was out of sorts this morning, just wanting to sit on the cube's wheel and not scratch around with the others.

 

Yesterday I'd noticed that she kept producing a lot of watery black poo and thought at the time that she might have been eating too much soil with her worms etc.....so today I wanted to keep my eye on her.

 

Once I opened the run door and threw a few cabbage leaves onto the garden she perked up and joined in the chase.

 

The other 3 had produced their egg and all had weighed in around the mid 50g mark. When all 4 were laying one egg would be about 69g and the other 3 in the 50s so I suspect that it was Sacco who may have been laying the larger eggs.

 

Later, Sacco was sitting in the shade at the back of the cube when I saw the other 3 rush over and squabble as if they had found a lost grape !!

 

They were all gulping down the remains of a soft egg.

 

Now I know that Sacco's tummy has been a bit off, and that she is laying the softees I've added a few drops of chicken tonic into the water to see if that helps.

 

I wonder if the hot weather is affecting our hens and causing the rise in softees ?

 

I'm also wondering if this might be the sign of slowing down on the egg laying and thinking about a moult time ?

 

I read somewhere that eggs are produced as a string, and the end of a string prompts the moult. The next string has less eggs and that's why ex battery hens still lay lots of eggs, but not as many as they did in the first year.

 

Regards,

 

Christine