20 week old pullet laying two eggs AT ONCE

[Kailcar]

I have a 20 week old barred rock pullet that yesterday afternoon was laying in the run, puffed up, eyes closed and not wanting to move. I brought her inside, gave her a good warm soak and when picking her up out of the water she passed a soft shelled egg and what looked to be a completely separate egg yolk. I couldn't tell if it was from the soft shelled egg and chalked it up to a weird incident. She perked up and are/drank fine.

This afternoon I noticed she was acting the same way. Puffed up, lethargic (she was fine all morning) so I brought her in and let her soak for about 15 minutes again. I fed her some scrambled egg with the shell (which she happily ate) and put her in with the flock since it was dark. I have cameras in there and noticed there was a huge wet spot in the bedding under where she was (she was sitting off by herself on the roost) so I went to look. TWO eggs were on the ground, both fully formed but soft shelled. I caught on camera that she laid the first one at 9pm sharp, and the second one showed up on the camera between 9:30 (it wasn't there) and 9:45pm (it was clearly there on the camera). So two eggs within 45 minutes of each other, FOR SURE from the same bird.

For the most part she's been eating/drinking/acting fine, and I know pullets do weird things when they first start laying but is this something I should be concerned about?? Is there anything I can do to make this better? I plan on picking up some calcium pills tomorrow.

They're on 20% protein egg layer pellets, free choice grit and oyster shells.. pictures for reference. Thanks ahead of time!

 

[FrostRanger]

I would just give her the calcium and keep an eye on her, most likely this is just a new layer glitch and should sort itself out soon

 

[Kailcar]

Thanks, I hope that's all it is. You can tell this is taking a toll on her and by the evening she just looks miserable. Poor bird. I'm picking up the calcium today on my lunch break at work. My local drug store has a 500mg version of it. Does it matter what time of day it's given to her?

 

[FrostRanger]

Thanks, I hope that's all it is. You can tell this is taking a toll on her and by the evening she just looks miserable. Poor bird. I'm picking up the calcium today on my lunch break at work. My local drug store has a 500mg version of it. Does it matter what time of day it's given to her?

Not really

 

[ChaosMom]

Poor girl, and so many other first-time layers. I find myself flashing back to when the human version started for me in 9th grade, 57 years ago.

Including

laying in the run [bed], puffed up, eyes closed and not wanting to move

 

[Kailcar]

Okay I'm at a loss.. We had one (maybe two) other pullets aside from this one with the double laying issue (which she did again last night). The other two were laying regularly with nice hard shells, and now all of a sudden they're laying soft shelled eggs in the middle of the night, too. I haven't gotten a single "good" egg in almost a week.
They have access to free choice oyster shell. I don't know what else to do at this point. I ordered a different oyster shell since the one I bought is the Manna Pro one and I guess it's not uncommon for hens to not to like eating it, but that won't be here for a few days. Does anyone have any other suggestions??

 

[FrostRanger]

Okay I'm at a loss.. We had one (maybe two) other pullets aside from this one with the double laying issue (which she did again last night). The other two were laying regularly with nice hard shells, and now all of a sudden they're laying soft shelled eggs in the middle of the night, too. I haven't gotten a single "good" egg in almost a week.
They have access to free choice oyster shell. I don't know what else to do at this point. I ordered a different oyster shell since the one I bought is the Manna Pro one and I guess it's not uncommon for hens to not to like eating it, but that won't be here for a few days. Does anyone have any other suggestions??

I think you're just dealing with new layer weirdness. Sometimes you get lucky and get little to no glitches and other times you get random glitches left and right. It'll sort itself out

But trying flaked oyster shell certainly won't hurt anything, nor will giving the ones who are laying soft shelled eggs some calcium tablets for a few days hurt either

 

[WingItRanch]

Definitely give her (and any others with egg laying issues) the Calcium Citrate with D3 pill.

I had a pullet that was laying fine and then all of a sudden she started laying 2 eggs in one sitting. She was still acting fine. Then things went downhill fast and she was suffering. I had to put her down after trying my best to help her. I'll try to find my thread if you want to read through the advice I got.

 

[WingItRanch]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-sitting-update-page-4-now-lethargic.1643740/

 

[Kailcar]

I think you're just dealing with new layer weirdness. Sometimes you get lucky and get little to no glitches and other times you get random glitches left and right. It'll sort itself out

But trying flaked oyster shell certainly won't hurt anything, nor will giving the ones who are laying soft shelled eggs some calcium tablets for a few days hurt either

I had been searching for a week or so for a flaked oyster shell that isn't $15/lb. I finally found a source but it's not local and I had to order it. In the mean-time I put out some crushed egg shells out for them as a quick alternative and a few snacked on it this morning. I'll be giving the problem pullet her calcium pill this evening and keep that going for a few more days and hope for some improvement.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed this is all just messy first-time layer business and it'll clear itself up! I'm just a little worried about the one laying 2 eggs within an hour of each other. She's perky and fine in the morning but the closer it gets to evening you can visibly see she is just so uncomfortable.

Thank you for your responses, I really appreciate it!