We’ve noticed some egg strangeness lately. The other day, what looked like a yolk had been dropped on the poop board. This morning, we found two shell-less eggs (which look like rubbery water balloons) on the poop board. And a “fart” egg – a tiny egg that usually is composed of just egg white – odd but interesting.
We currently have six, one year old adult laying hens; one is broody, so we usually get around four eggs a day. Our batch #1 pullets are about four months old, and our adults started laying at around five months of age, so it seems early for any pullets to be laying. Regardless, this is how it started with the first pullets – weird eggs, some soft-shelled, some with no shells, and a fart egg. Continue reading “Weird Eggs”
We had another night of severe storms, with forecasted winds of up to 55 mph. After the chicken tractor went aloft in the last windstorm, we modified it by shortening the tarp providing shade and cover on top; the result was that less than a quarter of it remained covered. There’s no way that thing could take off again.
Incubated eggs: batch #3 hatching is complete, with just one late hatcher left in the incubator. The chick in the photo was an unassisted hatch, but we noticed that one leg splayed out a bit, so we taped his/her legs together with a piece of bandage to help the leg straighten out. The late hatcher clearly needed some assistance, but we wanted to provide every opportunity for the chick to emerge on his or her own. When we did intervene, we began by partly opening the egg (last night) to see if s/he could kick out; when we checked this morning, s/he was still in the same position in the partial shell. 
