Soft shells when supplimenting with scap veggies

[cferschke]

First off; excuse the amount of poop on the poop board. Today is cleaning day. So, I had gone through a period where I definitely gave my flock of 9 way too much kale. I had issues of soft sheets for a while. I vowed to not supplement with anything until that was straightened out. Then I gave them a small amount of veggie scraps and then this happened. I also make sure to buy the Purine layer food with added oyster shells AND I feed them their own shells for extra calcium. I also was giving them a couple splashes of apple cider vinegar in the water. But it looked like it was rusting the galvanized waterer, so I didn't add it last water change.

Should giving them only a smallish amount of scraps cause this? Even with all the extra calcium they have access to? I'm stumped. I want to give them greens and scraps, but I don't want to be harming their egg production wither. Any ideas?

 

[Poultry parent]

i feed my chickens veggie/kitchen scraps and that's never happened to me. i'm not sure why they are doing that

 

[CluckerCottage]

Vinegar in a galvanized waterer leeches the zinc, which is poisonous to your birds.
Are they showing any other symptoms?
How old are your girls?

 

[cferschke]

No, those are the only symptoms. I guess I shold remove that waterer then? I started giving them the ACV after the first incident.

They are 26 weeks old.

 

[CluckerCottage]

Personally, I don't like metal poultry drinkers or feeders.
I like the thick plastic ones and I clean/disinfect them weekly.
ACV is fine to give chickens if that's what you want to do-- just use a plastic drinker.
Are your girls showing any signs of molting?
Feeding veggies/scraps should not affect them adversely.
This article may be helpful to you:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/common-egg-quality-problems

 

[cferschke]

Thanks for that article. They are not molting. It seems that we had recovered from the kale incident just fine. Then that rubbery egg happened after only one day of scraps. I had given scraps before. Weird. What about heating a plastic waterer? I was planning to get a heater for under the waterer for the winter.

 

[CluckerCottage]

We have a plastic water container and use a 1 hole cinder block with a 40 watt light bulb inside of it
Use a flat paver as the base so the bulb does not come into contact with the floor/shavings.
Just set the waterer on top of it and your water will not freeze.
Been using this method for a long time and have had no problems.
Hope this helps!

 

[cferschke]

Very good. Thank you so much for this info!!

 

[CluckerCottage]

Very good. Thank you so much for this info!!

Happy to help-- you are welcome!

 

[Little Fuzzy]

I got a soft shell egg from a chicken the morning she got locked out of the coop when she didn't make it in before the auto door closed. She spent the night in the closed run up on a safety shelf. When I went out there in the morning she was stuck in the run and I discovered the SS egg under the shelf. I assume stress caused this. Have your girls been under stress, possibly health stress?