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Hi folks,

Got a couple of POL hens 5 weeks ago one of the hens started laying a week later first egg was soft but all normal after that the other hen started laying about a week later but irregular an very small is this normal and how long should i wait for her to lay normal size eggs.

Thanks

Andy

We had a similar problem - we've had soft shelled eggs, huge double yolker eggs, followed by the smallest egg you've ever seen (without any yolk). I was worried that they had some weird disease (eg. IBR) after going through the chicken books but we persevered and now they are all laying perfectly normal eggs. How long has it taken? Don't really know but we've had them since before Christmas - so probably months rather than weeks. Ours would lay a normal egg, then every so often an abnormal egg. If it's intermittently abnormal and not continuous, then I would persevere with her.

Eggs are quite often abnormal at the beginning and end of lay, and egg size is normally fairly small at the beginning and gets bigger and bigger throughout the year (though I assume you mean abnormally small). Soft eggs, small eggs and wrinkled shells can all be signs of infectious bronchitis is they're happening consistently but I'd probably get them another few weeks observation. Double check that their nutrition is adequate (esp. calcium).

Good luck!

Egg size is often affected if hens go short of water. The struggle to eat without water (who wouldn't?) and this in turn affects the egg size.

As Sian says, wee eggs are laid at the start - it's because the bones above the vent have not enlarged themselves enough to let a larger egg though. You should be able to feel two knuckle like bones just above the vent and if you can get two finger widths between them, they are capable of laying. An egg two fingers wide is pretty small but as the hen ages the bones grow and the space gets bigger allowing larger eggs to pass.

Thin-shelled eggs are also a symptom of not enough calcium in the diet. What are you feeding your girls? One thing we've always done is feed the eggshells back to the hens during the laying season - dry the eggs in the warming drawer of the oven, crush and feed. They LOVE them.

Cheers
Andrea
NZ