Mine seem to be doing everything none of the books covered. Either they are weird or I need better books.
Ok so 4 hens. No clue who is doing the egg eating or what. I find egg shell with the top off it and completely empty sitting in the nesting box every day. I check for eggs twice a day even though right now I am only getting 3 eggs out of the gals a day and I usually have those in the morning. I check anyway. So eggs are never sitting out there long but I still have an empty egg shell waiting for me. Sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the evening. No consistency so I can track who is doing this.
I do have one hen who seems to have gone broody. I was told she was when I bought her. She will not use the nest boxes though. She dug a hole and carried hay from across the coop to her little hole and defends it against me and the other hens. She put it right under her perch. Don't think its her but who knows.
Is this nutritional. I am doing everything under the sun I can think of to make sure they are getting what they need. I am considering even buying meal worms for them. Right now their run is being expanded and reinforced due to stray dog issues so they are in a smaller than ideal area. The larger run area will be ready in a couple weeks. They have like a 15 X20 ft secure area they are in now. The grass in that area was already eaten down so I have taken to going twice a day in the cow fields and picking huge amounts of greens, I provide them with cooked crushed egg shells, layer feed twice a day, and oats for a treat. I even gave them a bit of high protein dog food in the hope that if it was protein they were after they would stop eating the eggs. No dice. I fret over their nutrition probably too much but they looked a bit sad when I bought them.
What am I doing wrong? What should I change? How can I fix it?
Ok so 4 hens. No clue who is doing the egg eating or what. I find egg shell with the top off it and completely empty sitting in the nesting box every day. I check for eggs twice a day even though right now I am only getting 3 eggs out of the gals a day and I usually have those in the morning. I check anyway. So eggs are never sitting out there long but I still have an empty egg shell waiting for me. Sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the evening. No consistency so I can track who is doing this.
I do have one hen who seems to have gone broody. I was told she was when I bought her. She will not use the nest boxes though. She dug a hole and carried hay from across the coop to her little hole and defends it against me and the other hens. She put it right under her perch. Don't think its her but who knows.
Is this nutritional. I am doing everything under the sun I can think of to make sure they are getting what they need. I am considering even buying meal worms for them. Right now their run is being expanded and reinforced due to stray dog issues so they are in a smaller than ideal area. The larger run area will be ready in a couple weeks. They have like a 15 X20 ft secure area they are in now. The grass in that area was already eaten down so I have taken to going twice a day in the cow fields and picking huge amounts of greens, I provide them with cooked crushed egg shells, layer feed twice a day, and oats for a treat. I even gave them a bit of high protein dog food in the hope that if it was protein they were after they would stop eating the eggs. No dice. I fret over their nutrition probably too much but they looked a bit sad when I bought them.
What am I doing wrong? What should I change? How can I fix it?
