17 month old hens stopped laying/laying softshell eggs

[Freeloading Chickens]

Hi fellow chicken peeps,
I have a small flock of six hens--three, 17-month-old Road Island Reds, a 17-month-old Americana, and two six-month-old Americanas. The older girls started laying last summer and laid fine until mid-winter, then petered out for a while and started laying more consistently in early spring. A couple months ago, we rehomed our Bared Rock hen and shortly afterwards, the older girls in the flock started laying less eggs and are now barely laying at all. I'm not sure if the two instances are related but I feel that it's worth mentioning. Our Bared Rock hen, Ruthie, was the leader of the flock and the older girls have seemed somewhat lost without her. Our little girls, the six-month-old Americanas, are just starting to lay and weirdly, are more consistent right now than their older "sisters." A new development occurred last week--when getting the chickens situated in their house for the night, we noticed a broken softshell egg. One of the big girls started eating it before we could stop her so we took her out to clean yolk off of her and when we put her back, there was a second softshell egg in the house. We've seen a couple other softshell eggs in the week since and always get them away before anyone can eat them, but the chickens haven't laid softshell eggs since they first started laying last summer. We give them a really good, Organic feed and provide it in multiple feeders so that they can eat as much as they want, whenever they want. We also have a sandbox for them to eat/hang out in and we provide them with oyster shells both in their feeders and in their sandbox. We also give them lots of fresh greens and a handful of dead worms a day. I'm wondering if anyone knows what they might be deficient in? We thought at first that they were molting but we haven't noticed that many red feathers around, and they don't look like they're losing feathers. Any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

[ChickNanny13]

It's probably the "newbies" laying the soft shelled eggs, it happens sometimes, their reproductive system adjusting. Since you're feeding Oyster Shells it should be in a separate container free feed. I would recommend stop "alot of treats". Treats of any kind voids the nutritional contents of their balance feed.

 

[Kiki]

"We also give them lots of treats, including a handful of dead worms a day."

This can be part of the problem too.

You wouldn't have to worry about them having any deficiencies if you feed them a balanced diet.

A balanced diet would be a pelleted or crumbled layer type feed ONLY.

Feeding daily treats takes away from them getting a balanced diet and causes all kinds of problems.

 

[Freeloading Chickens]

"We also give them lots of treats, including a handful of dead worms a day."

This can be part of the problem too.

You wouldn't have to worry about them having any deficiencies if you feed them a balanced diet.

A balanced diet would be a pelleted or crumbled layer type feed ONLY.

Feeding daily treats takes away from them getting a balanced diet and causes all kinds of problems.

I didn't know that treats weren't good for them. The treats are mostly pieces of fruit and kitchen scraps with a handful of dead worms. We are careful not to give them too much bread, but I didn't know that fruit, vegetables, and grain would be detrimental to their reproductive systems. I'll cut out treats and see if that helps. Thank you.

 

[Kiki]

I didn't know that treats weren't good for them. The treats are mostly pieces of fruit and kitchen scraps with a handful of dead worms. We are careful not to give them too much bread, but I didn't know that fruit, vegetables, and grain would be detrimental to their reproductive systems. I'll cut out treats and see if that helps. Thank you.

This might help you understand how important what they eat is.


On average a full grown hen should eat about 3/4 cup worth of feed per day.

If they are getting 1/4 or even 1/2 cup worth of treats per day do you see how that really takes away from them getting the "whole" balanced meal of 3/4 cup of feed?


One tablespoon worth of treat every once in a while is ok.
Not daily and not more than just a tiny amount of what ever you decided to offer.

EVERYTHING other than the crumbled or pelleted feed is a treat.



Imagine if your child had to eat only 1 cup worth of balanced food a day but you let him fill up on chips and cookies every day and he only got half or less of the balanced feed.

 

[Freeloading Chickens]

It's probably the "newbies" laying the soft shelled eggs, it happens sometimes, their reproductive system adjusting. Since you're feeding Oyster Shells it should be in a separate container free feed. I would recommend stop "alot of treats". Treats of any kind voids the nutritional contents of their balance feed.

That would make sense, but the softshell eggs have mostly been larger than the eggs that the babies have been laying, and the shells that we've seen have been brown instead of blue. The first couple softshell eggs, that didn't have any shell at all, could definitely have been from one of the little ones.
Thank you for the advice about the oyster shells. I'll put them in a separate bowl or feeder without any feed, and I'll cut back on treats. Thanks for your advice.

 

[Freeloading Chickens]

This might help you understand how important what they eat is.


On average a full grown hen should eat about 3/4 cup worth of feed per day.

If they are getting 1/4 or even 1/2 cup worth of treats per day do you see how that really takes away from them getting the "whole" balanced meal of 3/4 cup of feed?


One tablespoon worth of treat every once in a while is ok.
Not daily and not more than just a tiny amount of what ever you decided to offer.

EVERYTHING other than the crumbled or pelleted feed is a treat.



Imagine if your child had to eat only 1 cup worth of balanced food a day but you let him fill up on chips and cookies every day and he only got half or less of the balanced feed.

I mean, to reiterate, the "treats" we give them are fresh greens from the garden, pieces of fruit, seeds and hen scratch, and kitchen scraps that consist of vegetables and a tiny bit of leftover grains. We've been feeding them this way all along and they were laying fine until we rehomed Ruthie. We eat a very healthy, vegetarian diet ourselves and we give our chickens good things to eat.

 

[Kiki]

I mean, to reiterate, the "treats" we give them are fresh greens from the garden, pieces of fruit, seeds and hen scratch, and kitchen scraps that consist of vegetables and a tiny bit of leftover grains. We've been feeding them this way all along and they were laying fine until we rehomed Ruthie. We eat a very healthy, vegetarian diet ourselves and we give our chickens good things to eat.

I understand what you are saying but those are still treats...a balanced diet is best.

 

[Freeloading Chickens]

I understand what you are saying but those are still treats...a balanced diet is best.

We'll cut back on the treats and see if that helps. Thanks for the advice.

 

[aart]

Anything else but a balanced chicken ration can dilute the nutrition in they get from the feed.

The 17mos may be slowing production down to molt, if you are in the northern hemisphere, you can get some weird eggs at that time.