Teeny weeny egg!

[Sunbeam]

One of my ex-bat girls has started laying again - I've been getting one egg a day from her for the past week, which I normally get first thing in the morning.

When I was in the garden this afternoon I saw another in the nest (it could've been her, or my other ex battery as it wasn't from one of the other girls) but this one was about 1- 1/2 inches long and the probably no bigger than the hole you can make with your forefinger at your thumb joint (and I have small hands) when I first spotted it I actually thought it was a stone!!! I broke it into a dish there was no yolk, but just a very thick white... I've never seen one like it before - has anyone else ??

[Crazy Chickie]

Sometimes young hens, or hens under stress (she could still be feeling a little 'blaa' if shes still recovering from her captivity) lay small or not full formed eggs. My welsumer layed an egg even smaller one day because she was stressed from being caught and put into a new pen.

My Storey book of Chickens says they are called dwarf or wind eggs and has this to say about them;

"Such eggs are offten a pullets first effort, produced before her laying mechanism is fully geared up. In a mature hen, a wind egg is unlikely, but can occur if a bit of reproductive tissue breaks away, stimulating the egg-producing glands to treat it like a yolk and wrap it in albumen, membranes, and shell as it travels through the egg tube. You can tell this has occured if instead of a yolk the egg contains a small particle of greyish tissue. In the old days, no-yolkers were called 'cock' eggs. Since they contain no yolk and therefore can't hatch, our forebears believed they were laid by cockerels"

I wouldn't worry too much about it and just check any eggs you get in the future, to me it sounds like it was your other ex-bat's first attempt.

CC

[Sunbeam]

thanks for this - I have had both Battery girls for nearly 12 months, but only one has been laying - I wonder whether this is the other one's system getting ready to lay then!

[Birdie Wife]

Hi Sunbeam, one of my hens laid a couple of these eggs (with several weeks in between) while the weather was really crap and she's bottom of the pecking order anyway and quite scruffy looking. Stress is a good explanation! I've had none like it since October. As CC says, probably nothing to worry about just now unless she makes a habit of it.

[yoanbob]

i agree with cc, proberbly number two just gearing up, we get very strange ones somtimes, soft shells, blood on the inside, blood on the outside, HUGE eggs tiny eggs, its allways just the hen getting ready to lay.
just keep an eye on them.