Now and then our hens lay us a soft egg. Most often it takes them by surprise and drops out in the middle of the night when they’re perched on the roosting bars.

When that happens, the shell is soft enough for it to slip straight through the roosting bars and into the litter trays so we don’t find it until we clean them out at the weekend. Today, though, whoever laid the defunct egg managed to do it in the nest, so it landed safely and had nowhere to run away to. That meant we could pick it up.

We’ve never held one before, and I can tell you now it’s a curious thing. The skin is rubbery and very pliable. So much so that you can safely squeeze it with your fingers and it feels like a balloon full of water. The actual surface is rubbery and powdery.

The rubbery soft egg can be squeezed

On this one there is also some evidence of the egg not having formed properly inside the hen, leaving one end wrinkled and creased.

Fortunately it’s not something to be overly worried about as it’s a fairly rare occurrence in our little flock, but we’ll certainly be keeping our eyes out for any more.

Related posts:

1. Introducing new chickens to our flock
2. January 2010 egg count shows how our chickens are declining
3. A new feeder for the chickens