Broken Eggs

[Malpower]

I'm still getting at least one broken egg each day -- none of them appear to be eaten, just top of shell broken -- and now that I'm comparing them, I think that the shells actually are sort of thin and papery on the broken eggs -- oddly, it looks like today even an egg from my girl who usually has really thick hard shells was broken.

Two questions -- will a mixture of yogurt and powdered milk usually take care of the problem or are there other things I should try too? And how much of this mixture and how often should I feed?

Also, since I put out "treats" morning and evening, like hen scratch, rooster feed, sunflower chips, etc., could they be eating less laying feed with oyster shell and too much of the other seed I give them? I hadn't noticed if they were eating less laying feed, but last few days I've been putting laying feed in with the "treat" feed so there are osyter shells there too -- should I cut back on the "treats" and give them just straight laying feed for awhile? I also give them greens and veggies in AM and PM and also give them meal worms about once a day.

Am heading north to feed store tomorrow and perhaps there's something there I should buy that might help this broken egg problem -- any advice would be greatly appreciated? Thanks!

Kerry

 

[chickenbottom]

well thin shells are a calcium deficency which feed them oyster shells or their own egg shells back to them helps harden them

 

[California Ducken]

My duck has an egg breaking problem. She only smashed the eggs that the chickens left in her nest. The bad thing was that she sat on the eggs for about 18 days and then she started to get rid of all the chicken eggs.......they all had chicks in them. And yes I pulled the rest of eggs when I found this out.
Good Luck!

 

[ijon1]

I put pieces of old carpet in the nests.

 

[Me + Peeps]

To get my hens to lay i just stuck in some real eggs

 

[Malpower]

Quote:
Yeah, I'm going to work on the theory that the eggs are breaking cuz the shells are thin and break when another hen comes into the nesting box and sits on the previously laid egg -- will see if that's what the problem might be -- I just gave them some small dishes with goat yogurt mixed with non-fat powdered milk and they really scarfed it up! Have some of their shells saved that haven't made it into the compost yet and I'll try pulverizing them and add them to the mix tomorrow.

Fingers crossed!

Thanks!

 

[Malpower]

Quote:
Oh no! That's a shame! I can understand why she only wanted HER chicks to hatch, survival of the fittest and all that, but still...... I hope they all might decide on using different nesting boxes in future - good luck to you!

 

[Malpower]

Sorry to belabor this broken egg problem -- but I can't seem to figure out what's really going on -- here's a picture of one of the eggs -- they all look exactly the same -- but also all have intact eggs inside, yolks are never broken (I dumped this one out) -- all have similar hole chipped out on top:



The thing I noticed today and had missed before is that there are no bits of egg shell lying about that you would expect to find since a hole has been chipped out. I still think it happens when a hen goes in to lay an egg and goes into a nesting box with an egg already laid in it -- could the hen be pecking on top of that egg perhaps, to move it out of the way and maybe eat the shell herself? Do they do that? I do find some turned over and smashed lying next to a newly laid egg and those would have to have been sat on, but most are like this example.

I'm so perplexed and feel like I can't solve the problem until I can figure out what's really happening. In the meantime I'm trying to get more calcium into the girls so the shells will be harder, but maybe that's not the whole problem, or the problem at all.

And maybe this is just something that there will never be an answer to and I'll just continue to have broken eggs every day. Very frustrating! Arrrrgh!

 

[onthespot]

When I have had thin shell problems, it was usually on the wide end of the egg, not the side. To me that egg looks like a rat neatly took the top off and lapped up the insides.

 

[Malpower]

Quote:
Well, at first I was thinking rats, but the insides of the broken eggs have NEVER been eaten (I had just dumped out the insides of this before deciding to take a picture) -- shell is neatly gone but contents always remain!!

'Tis a puzzlement!