Really REALLY small chicken eggs????

[MossflowerWoods]

Ok the last 2 days in and amongst the chicken and duck eggs we gather every day there have been 2 VERY SMALL brown eggs.

They are NOT Guinea eggs, because we #1 are VERY familiar with them, and #2 the femal has not been in the coop for weeks, we think she is brooding a nest out in the woods in fact.

So...

What is happening here? One time one of the ducks laid a tiny egg, like 1/3 size and when I cooked it it had no yolk (all white). So I know an odd egg can occur... But 2 days in a row?

Now we do have both a bantam rooster (white) and a bantam hen (seriously fluffy brown with feathered feet) in our flock. but they were only hatched the week of 3/26/12 so there is NO WAY they are doing it (or is there?)

The little rooster has been trying to mount the older hens (it is pretty funny to watch the little feller trying I must say) but seriously they cannot be mature yet, can they?

Please advise.
Thanks in advance,
David

 

[MossflowerWoods]

My main reason for wanting to know is I promised the girls we would let the banty brood her eggs, but seriously she CAN'T be fertile yet can she?

Thanks,
David

 

[MossflowerWoods]

Also, if the Bantam rooster fertilizes a regular sizehen, does she lay a small egg? will it be 3/4 sized if hatched? What happens?

Thanks,
David

 

[Alien]

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.

 

[Taylortractornut]

Sometimes it just happens that way. My buff orphingtons did that occasionally. Sometimes they just dont have enough material to make a whole nother egg so it makes hat will come out.

 

[MossflowerWoods]

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.

Alien,

I agree, Hens will lay all summer with no rooster around. BUT if the egg is fertile, it get 1/2 its genetic material from the rooster, so I can only imagine we'd get small chickens. 1/2 bantam & 1/2 full sized = 3/4 sized cross breed...

But I cannot imagine a 3 month old bantam hen is laying eggs!

David

 

[MossflowerWoods]

Sometimes it just happens that way. My buff orphingtons did that occasionally. Sometimes they just dont have enough material to make a whole nother egg so it makes hat will come out.

Taylor,

That is my true suspicion.My oplder ginger hens are 1/2 leghorn 1/2 red, and they are fairly old, in fact one is looking downright elderly... I suspect one of the gingers is fading as a layer and laying these dinky eggs...
David

 

[BX25HD]

Are cayuga duck mates with our mallard sometimes and does nothing to the egg size. Do you have raiser feed that the birds are eating instead of layer feed? Our mallard was eatting the young ducks raiser feed and laid an egg with no outer shell, that was weird.

 

[Mace Canute]

Did you know... that the skin around the sides of a hen's face (known as "earlobes") correlates with egg color? In general, the darker the earlobes, the darker the eggs. Hens with white earlobes usually produce white eggs. Hens with red, brown, or black earlobes usually lay brown eggs. There are many exceptions to this rule however.

 

[aczlan]

Sometimes it just happens that way. My buff orphingtons did that occasionally. Sometimes they just dont have enough material to make a whole nother egg so it makes hat will come out.

Yep. We have a few hens that do that on occasion. Got an egg once that looked like it had cracked,then re-healed before it came out. Was odd looking.

Aaron Z

 

[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.