Really REALLY small chicken eggs????

[MossflowerWoods]

Ok the last 2 days in and amongst the chicken and duck eggs we gather every day there have been 2 VERY SMALL brown eggs.

They are NOT Guinea eggs, because we #1 are VERY familiar with them, and #2 the femal has not been in the coop for weeks, we think she is brooding a nest out in the woods in fact.

So...

What is happening here? One time one of the ducks laid a tiny egg, like 1/3 size and when I cooked it it had no yolk (all white). So I know an odd egg can occur... But 2 days in a row?

Now we do have both a bantam rooster (white) and a bantam hen (seriously fluffy brown with feathered feet) in our flock. but they were only hatched the week of 3/26/12 so there is NO WAY they are doing it (or is there?)

The little rooster has been trying to mount the older hens (it is pretty funny to watch the little feller trying I must say) but seriously they cannot be mature yet, can they?

Please advise.
Thanks in advance,
David

 

[MossflowerWoods]

My main reason for wanting to know is I promised the girls we would let the banty brood her eggs, but seriously she CAN'T be fertile yet can she?

Thanks,
David

 

[MossflowerWoods]

Also, if the Bantam rooster fertilizes a regular sizehen, does she lay a small egg? will it be 3/4 sized if hatched? What happens?

Thanks,
David

 

[Alien]

My understanding is that the hen produces the egg without help. The rooster just fertilizes it. The rooster has no bearing on size. They look like bantam eggs lol. I think your bantam is responsible.

 

[Taylortractornut]

Sometimes it just happens that way. My buff orphingtons did that occasionally. Sometimes they just dont have enough material to make a whole nother egg so it makes hat will come out.

 

[MossflowerWoods]

My understanding is that the hen produces the egg without help. The rooster just fertilizes it. The rooster has no bearing on size. They look like bantam eggs lol. I think your bantam is responsible.

Alien,

I agree, Hens will lay all summer with no rooster around. BUT if the egg is fertile, it get 1/2 its genetic material from the rooster, so I can only imagine we'd get small chickens. 1/2 bantam & 1/2 full sized = 3/4 sized cross breed...

But I cannot imagine a 3 month old bantam hen is laying eggs!

David

 

[MossflowerWoods]

Sometimes it just happens that way. My buff orphingtons did that occasionally. Sometimes they just dont have enough material to make a whole nother egg so it makes hat will come out.

Taylor,

That is my true suspicion.My oplder ginger hens are 1/2 leghorn 1/2 red, and they are fairly old, in fact one is looking downright elderly... I suspect one of the gingers is fading as a layer and laying these dinky eggs...
David

 

[BX25HD]

Are cayuga duck mates with our mallard sometimes and does nothing to the egg size. Do you have raiser feed that the birds are eating instead of layer feed? Our mallard was eatting the young ducks raiser feed and laid an egg with no outer shell, that was weird.

 

[Mace Canute]

Did you know... that the skin around the sides of a hen's face (known as "earlobes") correlates with egg color? In general, the darker the earlobes, the darker the eggs. Hens with white earlobes usually produce white eggs. Hens with red, brown, or black earlobes usually lay brown eggs. There are many exceptions to this rule however.

 

[aczlan]

Sometimes it just happens that way. My buff orphingtons did that occasionally. Sometimes they just dont have enough material to make a whole nother egg so it makes hat will come out.

Yep. We have a few hens that do that on occasion. Got an egg once that looked like it had cracked,then re-healed before it came out. Was odd looking.

Aaron Z