Raised 3 chickens solely for egg production -- and after a year, only one is laying successfully.

Jellycat

Hatching
Apr 15, 2015
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Has anyone been at this crossroads? We purchased three chicks last May and raised them strictly for their egg production. That was our sole purpose in having them. We of course think they're funny and enjoy watching them mill about the yard but they weren't meant to be pets forever.

We are at a crossroads. Only one of the chickens is successfully laying an egg everyday which is our Silver Wyandotte. The Leghorn lays an egg every so often but its shell is completely gritty like sandpaper and the eggs themselves are extremely tough to crack. We aren't even sure we should be eating them. The Barred Rock has become broody from what we've researched. She sits in the nest boxes, creates a whole hour plus of noisy ruckus and never lays.

We have tried offering oyster shell separately, and we feed them quality organic layer. We let them free range when we're out back with them, and have a great automatic water/feeder system in place so that no one should ever be dehydrated or hungry.

In our area, it is illegal to cull chickens, and honestly we don't really want to do that. What is our next option? Does anyone have any sound advice for us? The expense doesn't seem to outweigh the gains anymore.

I appreciate anyone's time to help me with this issue.
 
I'm surprised those breeds at a year of age aren't laying regularly this time of year.
But in retrospect, you're doing fine. One laying regularly, one less so and a broody - which never lay until their chicks grow up or they're broken.
I have a 6 year old Ameraucana that lays almost every day. Leghorns are laying machines.
Why do you think you shouldn't be eating the leghorn's eggs?
If what goes into them is healthy, then what comes out of them should be healthy.
It is a shame to go to all that trouble and expense and still have to buy eggs.
It's recommended to have 2 hens for each family member to have a good supply of eggs.

The broody will never lay eggs until you break the broody hormones.
What you have to do is get her bottom up off the ground to cool it. That is done by putting her in a wire bottom elevated cage for a couple days. After she's broken, she should start laying eggs in the next month or so.

She wants to raise a family and once they go broody, theoretically sitting on a fertile clutch of eggs, they won't lay again for a couple months. They stop laying once they have amassed a clutch and start setting. If they continued to lay during that time, the embryos would be at various stages of development and die after the hen came off to care for the first to hatch. Then she won't lay for a month or so while she mothers the chicks.

So I guess my point is, if you just have them for eggs, you need to break broodies immediately, have more hens and care for them accordingly.
They'll lay well till the second autumn when they molt and take a brief winter break. But they'll kick in again after the winter solstice and that pattern will continue for years.
 
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Thank you so much for responding ChickenCanoe. Your post was extremely helpful. We are also surprised that the Leghorn isn't producing more regularly. I guess we assumed by other people's knowledge on weird eggs that the existence of a "sandpapery" shell could mean that the bird is carrying some sort of disease or having a health issue of some kind.

When putting the broody hen in a wire cage, we just leave her with some food and water but keep her confined like that? Should she be let out and allowed to roam at all? Or how exactly does that work? I did read that some people say putting them in a bath of cool water also does this same trick? We haven't tried anything specific yet -- we recently just came to the realization that she is in fact trying to hatch the others' eggs.

She's still hard to catch (especially since the other two are submissive now when you walk up to them) so we've been trying to figure out the best way to deal with her behavior.

Thanks again for taking the time!
 
Welcome! The problem with having only three hens, and very optimistic expectations. Your Wyandotte is fine, and your Rock wants to be a mommy. She needs to be encouraged to get over it, because infertile eggs will never hatch, and she could starve while trying to hatch them. The Leghorn's eggs should be fine to eat; funky shells aren't a problem. She might be molting or stressed, or she could be developing reproductive issues; time will tell. Consider raising a few chicks this year to provide a more reliable amount of eggs per week. Mary
 
Have your cage ready and at night just pluck her off the nest and stick her in the cage. Put some food an water in it, keep her locked in there and in a couple days take her out and she should be ok.

Or as Folly's place said, you could find some baby chicks at the feed store and put them under her at night. That will break her broodiness but she still won't lay for another month or so while she cares for them but in another 5 months the chicks will be laying too. Just in time for the others to molt and quit laying for a few months.
 
Is the sandpapery feel of the eggs accompanied by calcium deposits? That, combined with a very thick shell, could indicate an excess of dietary calcium or a defective shell gland.
 
Thanks to everyone who responded. That's why I love this site. You get realistic help when you reach out!

To Folly's Place: We can't imagine she's stressed but it's very possible something is irritating her that we aren't even noticing? We think the coop house is a little too small and so we're currently in the midst of a new plan to build a bigger structure for them. We hope that's one positive step. We might not go the chick route just because we're afraid of hatching a rooster and having to deal with getting rid of him since it's illegal in our city. Although I would absolutely love to have baby chicks again. :)

We're going to attempt the cage route first to see if we can break our broody hen.

Losttexan: The rough outer shell is quite bumpy and from what I can tell certainly looks like it's got extra calcium deposits on it but I'm no expert. I'll have to take a picture of the next one and post it.

If a hen is ill in some way or has some underlying disease... can that be passed through to an egg? That's what we're most concerned about. Not knowing if -- even when the egg appears normal when cracked -- if it's edible or should be eaten.
 
The only poultry related diseases that can infect humans through the egg or meat are botulism, staphylococcosis, paratyphoid, colibacillosis, necrotic enteritis and campylobacteriosis. None of those cause calcium deposits on the egg. All except colibacillosis have more extreme symptoms. The eggs are fine to eat.
Calcification and calcium deposits on shells are either stress, a defective shell gland or nutritional. The nutritional possibility is from excessive calcium in the diet.
Birds not laying like broody hens or molters shouldn't be getting layer feed. In fact, birds that only lay occasionally shouldn't be eating layer feed.
A better choice is a grower of all flock type of feed but continuing the oyster shell on the side.

I don't know how big your coop is but rule of thumb is 4 sq. ft. of floor space per bird and about 10 per bird in the run. Those are minimum numbers.

http://www.alltech.com/sites/default/files/alltech-egg-shell-quality-poster.pdf
 
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If you are worried about getting roosters when buying chicks you can opt to get sexlinked at the store. Those should be relatively easy to spot if they are roosters or not at birth.
 
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