- Apr 9, 2011
- 20
- 0
- 22
Hi all.
We are new to the whole chicken thing - but are absolutely loving it. It has taken over our life! (No more T.V - Yay)
On Mother's Day we collected our 4 P.O.L chickens. They have a great long run in part of our 120' garden and seem to be extremely happy rolling in the dust, chilling and eating all day. They have their Layers pellets with crushed oyster shell, ther 2 buckets of water are topped up frequently, plus we also give them cooked crushed egg shells and a few treats like corn and raisins in the afternoon. They are 18-20 weeks old and all have their brilliant personalities and pecking order sorted.
Two of the chickens have an egg laying system sorted out - one lays at 9am, one at about 13.45-15.00hrs. We have had 6 eggs in 6 days so far from 2 of them. The other two don't seem to be doing much and I think we have a problem. One of them was standing up on Tuesday and an egg just plopped out which was soft and then the others pounced on it and ate it. Then, this morning, my husband went to the nesting box at 7.00am and 2 shells were in there - soft again, both different colours - so we presume they were from the 2 that have not laid yet. My husband has said that we should take them back to swap them for 2 new ones (the man said this was ok), but I'm wondering if they may just be a little nervous with the move etc and their egg laying routine will get better and the shells will soon harden up.
Has anyone got any ideas or should I swap them both - especially the one that just wants to eat the eggs as soon as they're laid! If I wasn't here to watch them and get the egg out immediately, I'm wondering if that chicken will just go and eat them!!
Thanks everyone.
Nicola x
We are new to the whole chicken thing - but are absolutely loving it. It has taken over our life! (No more T.V - Yay)
On Mother's Day we collected our 4 P.O.L chickens. They have a great long run in part of our 120' garden and seem to be extremely happy rolling in the dust, chilling and eating all day. They have their Layers pellets with crushed oyster shell, ther 2 buckets of water are topped up frequently, plus we also give them cooked crushed egg shells and a few treats like corn and raisins in the afternoon. They are 18-20 weeks old and all have their brilliant personalities and pecking order sorted.
Two of the chickens have an egg laying system sorted out - one lays at 9am, one at about 13.45-15.00hrs. We have had 6 eggs in 6 days so far from 2 of them. The other two don't seem to be doing much and I think we have a problem. One of them was standing up on Tuesday and an egg just plopped out which was soft and then the others pounced on it and ate it. Then, this morning, my husband went to the nesting box at 7.00am and 2 shells were in there - soft again, both different colours - so we presume they were from the 2 that have not laid yet. My husband has said that we should take them back to swap them for 2 new ones (the man said this was ok), but I'm wondering if they may just be a little nervous with the move etc and their egg laying routine will get better and the shells will soon harden up.
Has anyone got any ideas or should I swap them both - especially the one that just wants to eat the eggs as soon as they're laid! If I wasn't here to watch them and get the egg out immediately, I'm wondering if that chicken will just go and eat them!!
Thanks everyone.
Nicola x