Really REALLY small chicken eggs????

[Larry Caldwell]

Is the banty hen fledged? If she is, she is ready to start laying eggs.

 

[MossflowerWoods]

Is the banty hen fledged? If she is, she is ready to start laying eggs.

By fledged you mean full wing feathers, right?

I know she was only 1 or 2 days old when I got her about 3/25.

Thanks,
David

 

[Timm250]

Sometimes this happens when a hen is beginning to lay for the first time or they are so old that they are finished laying and won't lay anymore. The soft shell eggs are from a lack of calcium or grit as my mom says. Usually some oyster shell will solve that problem. The grit helps them digest their food.

 

[Mousefield]

My understanding is that the hen produces the egg without help. The rooster just fertilizes it. The rooster has no bearing on size. They look like bantam eggs lol. I think your bantam is responsible.

That's right, no rooster needed for hens :chicken: to lay eggs.
We get our chickens as pullets, about 18 to 20 weeks old, their eggs at first are very small compared to when they get a couple of months older.

 

[Susanjoyce]

If they're small and have no yolk, they're called gas eggs (or f**t) eggs. I get them every so often and they're actually pretty handy. I keep them around for putting an egg white wash on pie crusts.

 

[Susanjoyce]

Although in the picture they do look more like regular banty eggs. But boy, that's really starting young.

 

[MossflowerWoods]

If they're small and have no yolk, they're called gas eggs (or f**t) eggs. I get them every so often and they're actually pretty handy. I keep them around for putting an egg white wash on pie crusts.

F**T Eggs :laughing: :silly: :rotfl: :applause: :number1:

That is funniest thing I've heard all week.

Bless you!
David

 

[MossflowerWoods]

Although in the picture they do look more like regular banty eggs. But boy, that's really starting young.

Yesterday a white one showed up.

I only have 2 bantys, a brown fluffy, and a white (but he crows and mounts). I do have 6 mostly white pullets that are almost exactly the same age (within a day or so, all bought at TSC Chick days approx 3/25/12).

I'm stumped, but maybe somebody's been feeding them beans...

David

 

[Susanjoyce]

Beans...hehehehe.

Stranger and stranger...

Are your chickens free-range or penned? What color are their combs? I mean, I've heard of banties starting early, like four months, but to have one banty hen start so young, and then to be getting both white and brown eggs--one of the others has also started to lay. I'd be looking at feral chickens or volunteers co-opting your nesting boxes, but that's a really wild guess. Have you been over to Backyard Chickens--someone there might know what's going on. But heck, next year I'm using TSC!

 

[forgeblast]

I keep some oystershell handy too, I had one shell that just didnt look right, after the oyster(calcium) the egges went back to looking normal.