- Apr 23, 2013
- 16
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I have 4, 2-3 year old hens that weren't laying when I got the about a month ago and have just started in the last week, as we are heading into autumn here I didn't really expect them to start laying until next spring. they are all different breeds and I think I've identified which hen is laying which egg.
Here are the eggs,
numbered from left 1-5, egg 1 was from yesterday, the rest where from today.
I am getting a small almost white egg that has a very pointy top from this chicken, Egg 4 in top pics
I am getting a med pale brown egg from (I think) this chicken, Egg 2
and a slightly larger egg with a very faint green in daylight with a reasonably thin shell and an odd shape from this hen, egg 5 has an odd shape one side is quite thin and flattened and possibly egg 1 (from yesterday), which seems fine
And from this hen (I think) I am getting a huge egg with almost no shell, it's so fragile that sitting on the ground after it's been laid indents the shell and picking it up deforms the shell and leaves dimples in it, the first one we got (on the first day we started laying was about half as big again as this one and was a double yolker. Egg 3, the shell is like rice paper thickness, you can see in the pic that it's almost crumpled from me picking it up, but it hasn't broken.
The hens are getting fed kitchen scraps, layer mash and poultry wheat and have a bowl of grit available to them that I put out as soon as I saw they where laying.
how long will it take for the shells to get thicker if it is just a calcium deficiency now that they are getting enough (I assume)?
is there anything else it could be that is causing the very thin shells? what should I do about it?
Here are the eggs,
numbered from left 1-5, egg 1 was from yesterday, the rest where from today.
I am getting a small almost white egg that has a very pointy top from this chicken, Egg 4 in top pics
I am getting a med pale brown egg from (I think) this chicken, Egg 2
and a slightly larger egg with a very faint green in daylight with a reasonably thin shell and an odd shape from this hen, egg 5 has an odd shape one side is quite thin and flattened and possibly egg 1 (from yesterday), which seems fine
And from this hen (I think) I am getting a huge egg with almost no shell, it's so fragile that sitting on the ground after it's been laid indents the shell and picking it up deforms the shell and leaves dimples in it, the first one we got (on the first day we started laying was about half as big again as this one and was a double yolker. Egg 3, the shell is like rice paper thickness, you can see in the pic that it's almost crumpled from me picking it up, but it hasn't broken.
The hens are getting fed kitchen scraps, layer mash and poultry wheat and have a bowl of grit available to them that I put out as soon as I saw they where laying.
how long will it take for the shells to get thicker if it is just a calcium deficiency now that they are getting enough (I assume)?
is there anything else it could be that is causing the very thin shells? what should I do about it?
