Is this an attempt at an egg??

Hiya,

Got my first chickens a couple of days ago and on the first day one of them passed what looked like a yolk, I had another two yesterday and one already this morning.
The hens all look in very good condition and are all eating and drinking well so is this an early attempt at an egg or some weird dropping??

(they're all POL and their combs are starting to pink up)

I had been told that the gooey egg type things they pass is because they are at the end of a monthly cycle. Think of their eggs like a pearl necklace, all the beads , well they usually have around 32 of these 'beads' and as they get closer to the end of this set of 'beads' they become the things you find before you. In a couple of days they will be fine again. I know mine arent practicing, as they do this all year round at certain times, but not alot.  I'm not finding these things everyday or week. I dont know how much truth is in it but it sounded true enough to me coming from the old guy who is giving me advice on everything allotment orientated, plus like I say this also happens to me...

I must admit, I agree with you aunt sally, I've not had anything like that from mine either  :?:

just a thought; I agree with aunt sally that they probably are just practising, but just wondered are you giving them oyster shell?

Even though it doesnt happen to everyone it doesnt mean that it doesnt happen! It has happened to me quite a few times so it doesnt really bother me anymore, but at the time my birds were not practicing. My chickens get a diet of layers pellets, wheat, grit and oyster shell as well as the occasional green stuff from home, and it still happens occasionaly so there could be truth in what I was told, but then again if you guys/gals dont get things like that happening to yous and have kept chickens for a while then I cannot explain it, I would of thought that only the young birds would be practicing, I got some off ex battery hens, which had all been laying for ages, so I do not know exactly. But I'm going to do some research on what I was told and I'll get back to you all. I have only kept hens for just over 1 year now so theres still alot I need to learn about them but this also happens to other peoples hens near my allotment.....It's wierd!!! Ive never had any really young birds so cannot say for sure but if you think about it it does make sense what the old guy told me, all females have a cycle, no matter what she is, woman, horse, chicken, frog and their cycle is governed by the moon, the same as the tides..... Women create eggs once a month when they are ovulating, chickens are different, they can produce eggs everyday and this is because they are all produced at the same time on this so called bead, but they are all so small, and enable the sperm from the cockerel to enter each one, why do you think your hens produce fertile eggs for up to 1 month after being with a cockerel? They grow as they are due and the ones at the end are these little ones, because sometimes the bird produces too many eggs at the start of each of their months, the difference between the days of the month probably does this to them, as some months are 30 days some are 31 as you all know, and sometimes, not every time and not every bird produces more than it should, some birds can lay twice a day, its all in their breeding I think. But like I said I will try to find out more about their cycle...

:shock: Nice 1, thanks Aunt Sally, so instead of all the eggs being made fertile all at the same time like the old guy suggested, the chickens store the sperm in a sac like a testicle and fertilises the eggs when they are ready.... Thanks for that link, I'll have something to tell the old man tomorrow that he never knew, but I bet he wont accept it lol. I wasnt trying to sound like a know it all, but his story seemed too good not to be true.  Perhaps is age is starting to get to him!!! and I'll take what he says with a pinch of salt... Theres always help I could get here anyway on anything I need to know, and that makes me very happy!!!

How the egg system really works is not really important Mark.  

But cultivating a good friendship with your old timer is.  Just accept what he says with a knowing Mmmm... yes I see.  It will make him happy, and you know how to sort truth from fiction anyway  

I have had experience of poultry over many years and was of the opinion that if hens were laying eggs only covered in skin it was an idication that they were short of grit.  This was always rectified by having plenty of grit, stones, sand or crushed shell grit available.