Two of the three hens have been laying, but it appears that Bitchzilla, despite her early lead in size and attitude, is now the most timid, and most immature. Well, she may be on the verge of maturity now as we’ve found an egg that looks like a first try. At first we thought it was broken because of the odd pitch it was at and the weird shape. When I picked it up to remove it from the coop, I realized that it was still fully intact, but the shell was only slightly more solid than a balloon. Instead of a full egg, it was a thick membrane around a yolk.
When hens start laying, you should expect a few eggs that aren’t quite done. Some will just bee the inner goo (white & yolk), and some with have various stages of calcification as the shell machine comes online. Looks like we’re about to the point of having a working egg production line.
Now, if only we could get them to lay in the nesting box instead of all over the run. It would be nice to have some eggs that weren’t covered in droppings and feathers.
Did you know that if you put an intact egg into a glass of vinegar and leave it for a couple of weeks, the shell dissolves? Then you’re left with an egg balloon probably like the one your chicken made.
Somebody once told me you put golf balls (because they look like eggs) in where you want the chickens to lay the eggs. Then the ‘others’ would see where they’re supposed to pop out them darn things.
I’ve got a golf ball from high school in one of the nesting boxes at the moment. We had a wooden Egg with George & Barbara Bush’s signatures on it from a 1991 trip to the white house, but it disappeared like 3 days before the hens started laying. Mystery.
I’m not sure the bright orange ball is doing the trick. ;)