15-week old chicken laid egg

[ReiK]

No Oyster Shells available where you live!
Some countries use Crushed Limestone or Crushed Marble as a Calcium supplement for chickens. GC

There is a possibility oyster shells are not available. But will still try to look around or even online. Thank you.

 

[Ridgerunner]

If she is laying you can give her Layer feed. The problem may be that you have other pullets her age that are not laying and probably should not be eating Layer because of the extra calcium in it. I don't know how many other chickens you have or how you are feeding or managing them.

When a pullet first starts laying it sometimes takes a while for her to get all the bugs out of her internal egg making factory. They can lay a thin-shelled or no-shell egg, an egg with a really thick hard shell, a no-yolk egg, an only yolk egg with no whites, or a double yolked egg, let lone some other really weird eggs. Yours is only 15 weeks old which is really young. I don't know how you feed and manage your chickens but the problem could easily be that her body does not process the calcium she is getting rather than a lack of calcium.

A chicken can get calcium for some of the plants they eat if they get to eat plants, but they are unlikely to get enough calcium just from plants. They can get calcium from certain things they eat , like small critters with bones or some bugs with a hard shell though most bugs don't have calcium in their shells. Do you have access to bones you could crush for them? If you have access to oyster, clam, or crab shells or lobster, crab, or crawfish claws those are almost pure calcium. I'm not talking about the clear soft parts of them, those are not calcium, just the really hard parts. Some rocks contain calcium, limestone being the most common. You can feed egg shells to them. By themselves they can't get enough calcium from their egg shells but if they are getting some calcium from other sources egg shells might be enough extra to give them enough total calcium.

Good luck with this, it's not always easy to figure out.

 

[MildlyOffensiveChicken]

Thank you. Will try to purchase some as it is not available in the pet store here

I don’t like shopping at Walmart. But they carry oyster shell.

 

[ReiK]

If she is laying you can give her Layer feed. The problem may be that you have other pullets her age that are not laying and probably should not be eating Layer because of the extra calcium in it. I don't know how many other chickens you have or how you are feeding or managing them.

When a pullet first starts laying it sometimes takes a while for her to get all the bugs out of her internal egg making factory. They can lay a thin-shelled or no-shell egg, an egg with a really thick hard shell, a no-yolk egg, an only yolk egg with no whites, or a double yolked egg, let lone some other really weird eggs. Yours is only 15 weeks old which is really young. I don't know how you feed and manage your chickens but the problem could easily be that her body does not process the calcium she is getting rather than a lack of calcium.

A chicken can get calcium for some of the plants they eat if they get to eat plants, but they are unlikely to get enough calcium just from plants. They can get calcium from certain things they eat , like small critters with bones or some bugs with a hard shell though most bugs don't have calcium in their shells. Do you have access to bones you could crush for them? If you have access to oyster, clam, or crab shells or lobster, crab, or crawfish claws those are almost pure calcium. I'm not talking about the clear soft parts of them, those are not calcium, just the really hard parts. Some rocks contain calcium, limestone being the most common. You can feed egg shells to them. By themselves they can't get enough calcium from their egg shells but if they are getting some calcium from other sources egg shells might be enough extra to give them enough total calcium.

Good luck with this, it's not always easy to figure out.

Thanks for the informative advice. She is eating mixed of starter grower feed upto yesterday. But since she laid an egg yesterday, i included some maintenance/ layer pellet today(mixed not pure). She has been able to go out in the yard wherein access to soil and some grasses during morning when weather is good. I may have access to raw oyster shell, do i just crush it into powder or small portions? I am afraid since she's young that she'd have excess calcium if i continue to provide layer feed. So i would really like it to be on a separate choice container.

 

[ReiK]

I don’t like shopping at Walmart. But they carry oyster shell.

Hi. Walmart is not common in our country. Will try at poultry store.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I may have access to raw oyster shell, do i just crush it into powder or small portions?

Ideally you would crush it down to smallish flakes - not too fine but small enough that they can easily eat it, like no wider than the diameter of a small green pea.

 

[ReiK]

Ideally you would crush it down to smallish flakes - not too fine but small enough that they can easily eat it, like no wider than the diameter of a small green pea.

I have researched and they said to bake it? But i don't have oven at home, can i just boil the shell? Then crush and feed it. I tried gaving her pellet(layer/maintenance) she does not eat, she wants very small particles, can i crush further pelletized commercial feeds?

 

[rosemarythyme]

I have researched and they said to bake it? But i don't have oven at home, can i just boil the shell? Then crush and feed it. I tried gaving her pellet(layer/maintenance) she does not eat, she wants very small particles, can i crush further pelletized commercial feeds?

Not completely sure... I buy mine processed into flakes. I think the main point of baking is to kill off anything that would be harmful on the shell, so boiling should do the same.

You can crush pellets down to crumble, or (this is probably easier) you can wet it so it dissolves into a mush. A lot of chickens enjoy wet feed.

 

[ReiK]

Not completely sure... I buy mine processed into flakes. I think the main point of baking is to kill off anything that would be harmful on the shell, so boiling should do the same.

You can crush pellets down to crumble, or (this is probably easier) you can wet it so it dissolves into a mush. A lot of chickens enjoy wet feed.

Thank you. Will just try boil it for longer time to be sure before crushing. Will also try crushing the pellets. They seem to have personality, and yesterday when i tried wetting her feed, but will try again maybe it is just new to her getting a wet feed.

 

[LaFleche]

I would hope so. As here in my country, lots of products are not easily available.

You can collect eggshells, dry and crush them to feed them back to your hens. But this alone will not suffice if you have high production hybrids.