Chicken Eggs, Double Yolks And Eggs With No Shells

  So you think once the chickens start laying, having chickens will be the same, day after day. Oh, but that's not quite true, at least not in most chicken houses, lol.

  We have been averaging seven eggs a day this week, so far! Whatever will we do when those nineteen hens are ALL laying?

   But for now, I want to share a story about our Golden Comet, Fluffy.

   Fluffy is not a noticeable G.C. personality-wise. She doesn't particularly stand out to us in any way except for the fact she has gams that look wider than the others, and she is fluffier. Especially from the rear. It is hard not to name her 'Fluffy Butt'. (We have a couple of extra fluffy Black Australorps as well, but this isn't their time to be mentioned.)

  Anyway, Fluffy seemed an itty bit slow getting out of the pen when I opened the gate for the chickens to come out for their free-range time.

  But though I sort of noticed her taking her time, I didn't have reason to pay a lot of attention.

  After they had been out for a while, I noticed Fluffy walked to a spot and just stood still, looking way too still, just standing there, on the side of a hill in our yard.
  
  I watched her a few minutes and then mentioned it to my husband, who also had noticed her stillness.

  My husband decided it was time for them to return to their pen for the night, so he started giving them their evening temptation scratch and food pellets (they have regular mash and pellets in their hen house feeder, so scratch is a morning and nightly treat).

  I started rounding up the strays ( going and getting on the opposite side of the chickens who didn't run toward the chicken pen immediately, and heading them that way ).

  Fluffy wasn't reacting, so I went and stood close enough to her to make her want to walk away from me.  Still standing on the opposite side of the way I wanted her to head, I inched closer to her, and then I made as though I were reaching down to pick her up. This made her move, even though she moved slowly.

  I finally got her to the pen. She had a hard time getting there though. But she was in. She found a spot and stood still again.

  The other chickens were eating their scratch eagerly, but she wasn't interested in doing anything but standing still.

  My husband encouraged her into the chicken house since we could tell by looking at Fluffy she was EGG-BOUND. That dreaded word!

  We hadn't ever seen Fluffy get into a laying box yet, so we are going to assume this was her first time to finally need to lay, okay?

  We waited for a bit, and my husband went and checked on her progress. We pretty much knew Fluffy was feeling too heavy to jump up to the nesting boxes, so we weren't surprised when he found what she was able to finally squeeze out, was on the floor. It was an egg with no shell, AKA: a soft shelled egg. She was still in distress, but she had managed to get up on the roost bar that is in front of the row of nesting boxes. (We have one higher than the top of the roosting boxes as well.)

  She was half in the in front of a box, a little bit inside one. Her rear was parked in there with the rest of her outside the box, leaning on the roost bar when I went out there later.

  I was cooking supper when I felt 'impressed' to go lay my hand on her and pray. So I did. I told God He would have to make her not shy away from me, in order to touch her while praying.

  I'll say here that God is The Healer, not me. I have no 'magic', or power in or of my own self. We Christians are to be vessels, with the Lord as our source. He flows through us, not designating us as "little gods" as some have suggested mistakenly. That is not correct teaching. You can't find that in the Bible unless you pervert what is written. That would be a perversion of the Gospel, a New-age belief. The glory would go to themselves in that upside down teaching.

  I was trusting in God, not myself, to touch Fluffy. When we pray, that is who we should pray to. When we trust in God (Jehovah our Father God, Jesus God's Son, and God's precious Holy Spirit, all one together in unity as always, make up the Holy Trinity who is God).

  Now that you know Who I trust in, I felt to pray as a willing vessel for Fluffy. I was just obeying a prompting I received in my spirit, God's Holy Spirit communicating to me in my spirit.

  So I left the part of making the chicken cooperate to God. Fluffy didn't move when I touched her. (She thought about it!) She only flinched at first and then she decided she would let me get away with that.
  
  After I was done praying, Fluffy heavily moved away from me, without completely standing up. It was like she was doing a squat-walk (the best I can describe it).

  I noticed after she moved that there was another soft shelled (no shell) egg where her bottom had hung into the box. That one was a bit deflated looking because the membrane that held it into an egg shape had leaked some.

  The membrane on these type of eggs is like a balloon texture. They feel like they are made of latex. (See photos below)



These are eggs with no shells, just surrounded by a thick membrane. One lays flatter than the other because its membrane is leaky. 

Same eggs, but I cut the membranes open with a pair of scissors so you can see the insides are intact. Also the membrane is brown, like the shell would have been, had it finished forming.

Most people decide on throwing the soft shelled (no shelled) egg away, due to their being no shell. The thought of eating an egg without the shell brings thoughts of bacteria. They are worried that the membrane alone doesn't keep out the bacteria. I threw mine out as well after I photographed them.

  We went ahead and ate our dinner, and then my husband went to check Fluffy's progress. No more surprises, and she was moving about normally and quickly. He went to reach for Fluffy to move her into a box, and she moved away in an agile manner and looked at him as if to say, "Hey, what do you think you are trying to do?" lol. We believe she is healed. And we are thankful.

 

   Our other unusual layer is Hagatha. Our bossiest, moodiest hen, a Cherry Egger. She has layed one soft shelled egg herself twice, though she wasn't in distress.  And they weren't back to back either. The first time Hagatha layed an egg with no shell, it was only her second egg. Her body is just not quite regulated yet. It came out too soon before it had a chance for the shell to form, that's how we get a soft shelled egg.

 

  Another time Hagatha laid one like that was the morning after the hens all got their wings clipped. So stress caused that one to happen. One of the chickens layed an egg without even the membrane to give it a shape! Of course one or more of them ate that one.

 

  Hagatha has also been laying double yolk eggs at times. And one day she just flat out laid two whole eggs back to back! I don't care what you say, I looked in and saw her in the nest box. I waited for her to come out, but she was taking too long to lay the egg (I though), so I went into the house and ate my breakfast. I came back out and she was STILL in the same nesting box. I had looked for eggs earlier and that nest box had been empty. I waited outside for her to finish. I was getting concerned, when Hagatha jumped down and ran out to rejoin the other chickens. I went to get her egg, and that's when I saw she had done two.

 

  Now if I hadn't have seen the box was empty before she came and got into it, I would just assume she was laying her egg next to someone else's egg. But that's not the case.

 

  I googled on the computer to see if it was impossible. It's not! I found others who also had certain knowledge (not just suspicion) that their chicken layed twice in close succession like that once or twice.

 

  Now I will show Hagatha's double yolk eggs:

 

 

  Top picture demonstrates the double yolk size difference from the pullet's normal little egg in between the two double yolk eggs.

 

  The lower picture is another perspective as they sit so much higher in the carton of pullet eggs.

 

  Our pullet eggs are still little of course though some are getting to be medium size now. We can't wait the hens to start producing large eggs as these are supposed to when they have matured some more!

 

 

 

  Top picture is of the two double yolked eggs, raw, sitting on a salad sized plate.

The bottom picture in of the two double yolked eggs cooking next to two single yolked eggs.

 

   Don't these pictures just make you hungry for eggs with toast on the side? Yummy!

 

  I will eat these of course, after I give thanks to God for the chickens and their eggs. :)