Any one want to join me in waiting for eggs, posting and comparing notes?

[Melabella]

Oh AND my boyfriend bought me an R-com Suro incubator for Christmas! Let the obsessive fertile egg shopping begin!

waaaayyyyyy jealous! Wonderful,, congratulations! That is the best Christmas gift!

MB

 

[Melabella]

I hear by determine..


2013
To be the year of the EGG

​

​

 

[Crafty-Duck]

Oh AND my boyfriend bought me an R-com Suro incubator for Christmas! Let the obsessive fertile egg shopping begin!

Lucky!

I let my duck hatch a chicken egg once! turned out to be a rooster which I can't keep

I have some serious bad luck with getting roosters so hatching eggs is not an option for me but have fun and share pics of your hatches

MB, those girls are still making you wait!!!! I think you must have a bunch of slackers.Maybe by New years or hopefully sooner!!!!!!

 

[Xanadu]

I am also a newbie and very small in that I started with 3 chicks the end of June, lost one the end of July to a crevice I hadn't noticed in our makeshift pen. So now I have one white hen with yellow legs and one black one with coppery colored chest feathers and dark legs. The helpers my husband had bring them to me didn't bother to find out what kinds of chickens they were bringing me. The white one I call Buttercup (because she was butter yellow preadulthood) has been acting oddly the last week and started digging holes in the pen 3 days ago. I've had her a covered cat litter type box with cedar shavings and a boiled egg inside a plastic playhouse for a couple of weeks now.
Good news/bad news. This morning I found one pretty light brown very delicately shelled egg in the corner of the playhouse on the opposite side from the nesting box in a hollow she had scratched in the mulch on the floor. Bad news is it had been eaten out. Pretty frustrating for as long as I have waited and babied my girls. I don't have any idea which did it but she hasn't been looking her self the last few days as if she may have lost a little weight and neither of them seem very hungry although they are eating kind of passively.
I pick wild dandelion and chickweed almost every day for them along with a little plantain a couple of times. I have been feeding them Nutrena Country layer feed 16% pellets for about the last month along with leftover raw veggies and a little fruit from the kitchen. I have seen some slightly watery bowel movements but nothing alarming. The ground in their pen is dirt with some straw from the bales I used to make them a warm shelter at night that I hope to re-arrange around the plastic playhouse as soon as I can so they have the ground space of their pen less occupied.
So I don't know what to do about the egg eating.
I just blocked them in the playhouse because I think it is hurting Buttercups feet walking around in the moist mud in this 28 degree weathre. She holds one foot up off the ground at a time curling it into a fist like it hurts so I am making an assumption that it does. I put some layer feed, some apple peices, a couple of strawberries, some cabbage, a handful of steel cut oats raw and a little chickweed/dandelion mix in there with them along with a water dispenser. The nesting box is in there too and a couple of roosts.
I hope I am doing everything as well as they need me too but I feel so ignorant. I do read on this site as I can as it is fascinating to me. Any suggestions? I am going to look up egg eating in the search feature.

 

[Xanadu]

I agree with you Melabella!

2013 the year of the EGG. By the command of us two
(and anyone else who'll join it) so let it BE! LOL!

 

[Melabella]

I am also a newbie and very small in that I started with 3 chicks the end of June, lost one the end of July to a crevice I hadn't noticed in our makeshift pen. So now I have one white hen with yellow legs and one black one with coppery colored chest feathers and dark legs. The helpers my husband had bring them to me didn't bother to find out what kinds of chickens they were bringing me. The white one I call Buttercup (because she was butter yellow preadulthood) has been acting oddly the last week and started digging holes in the pen 3 days ago. I've had her a covered cat litter type box with cedar shavings and a boiled egg inside a plastic playhouse for a couple of weeks now.
Good news/bad news. This morning I found one pretty light brown very delicately shelled egg in the corner of the playhouse on the opposite side from the nesting box in a hollow she had scratched in the mulch on the floor. Bad news is it had been eaten out. Pretty frustrating for as long as I have waited and babied my girls. I don't have any idea which did it but she hasn't been looking her self the last few days as if she may have lost a little weight and neither of them seem very hungry although they are eating kind of passively.
I pick wild dandelion and chickweed almost every day for them along with a little plantain a couple of times. I have been feeding them Nutrena Country layer feed 16% pellets for about the last month along with leftover raw veggies and a little fruit from the kitchen. I have seen some slightly watery bowel movements but nothing alarming. The ground in their pen is dirt with some straw from the bales I used to make them a warm shelter at night that I hope to re-arrange around the plastic playhouse as soon as I can so they have the ground space of their pen less occupied.
So I don't know what to do about the egg eating.
I just blocked them in the playhouse because I think it is hurting Buttercups feet walking around in the moist mud in this 28 degree weathre. She holds one foot up off the ground at a time curling it into a fist like it hurts so I am making an assumption that it does. I put some layer feed, some apple peices, a couple of strawberries, some cabbage, a handful of steel cut oats raw and a little chickweed/dandelion mix in there with them along with a water dispenser. The nesting box is in there too and a couple of roosts.
I hope I am doing everything as well as they need me too but I feel so ignorant. I do read on this site as I can as it is fascinting to me. Any suggestions?

Welcome to BYC Xanadu, and also our egg waiting thread.

I am on my first go around with my flock that is only 22 weeks old, so i am by no means an expert. So sorry about the very first egg being eaten before you can get to it!

I have read on here a few times that the shells of new egg layers may be a bit soft, or even no shell at all. Hopefully it was just that, a new laying egg just not quite getting it right yet . I would make sure your girls had some oyster shell at their disposal, just to make sure that they are getting the extra supplement. You mentioned having a real boiled egg in your nesting boxes. While putting "dummy" eggs in nesting boxes is thought to be a very good idea to give new layers the idea where they should lay, I don't think I would use a real egg. Even hard boiled eggs will have a smell of food, and it might have encouraged feeding on it in the past. Had you ever noticed that? Nonetheless, perhaps one time does not make an egg eater hopefully. Perhaps you should get out to the craft store, they sell those wooden eggs, or even easier if you have some spare golf balls around in the garage or shed, people have used those with great success I have heard.

As far at the chicken holding it's foot up, is she doing that all the time, and limping, or is she just holding it up as she takes steps. My chickens sometimes do that, but there is nothing wrong. Have you inspected the bottom of her foot for any cuts or bumblefoot?

Perhaps you could copy and paste your questions and post them in the "Chicken Behaviors and Egglaying" section of the forum. THere are so many experienced people who can give you insight as to what to do, people with years of experience that will be ready to help. Please don't feel ignorant, you are new, and just starting out, so much to learn. Ignorant would be ignoring your observations, and not doing anything about it.. you are doing just the opposite. Good Luck, and please keep us posted,,, so glad you joined us...


Good Luck!
MB

 

[Melabella]

Quote: Still no eggs, and I went out Christmas Eve and made it painfully clear what I wanted for Christmas!

Here they are yesterday, enjoying a Christmas treat. Bad girls,, very,,very bad girls! !

 

[BroosterSpringsteen]

Egg eating can be a frustrating problem, but it's a really common one. Once a chicken gets a taste for it, it's a difficult habit to break. There are several threads on here about it. If you do some reading, you'll find lots of suggestions.

I had a problem egg eating chicken last year. I definitely noticed she did it more when I didn't gather the eggs every day, and also if there wasn't plenty of fresh cool water available. At the time my waterer was having a problem with the vaccuum mechanism, and sometimes wouldn't release enough water, so I replaced it, and that seemed to cure the problem.

 

[nakstk]

Well Christmas came and went with only one egg from my girls. Good girl Phoebe. Still waiting on Greta whom by the way turned 35 weeks old today. There is no possibilities of a hidden egg with the way our coop and run is set up. Even during free range time I am out there at all times. So now I am debating on adding light or worming right now while no one is laying. I have gotten 17 eggs for the month of December. I am really leaning towards worming. I have never wormed them before and my 5 SS are 17 months and the other 3 are 35 weeks. hmmm

What do you all think?

 

[jyurina]

No eggs yet, still waiting. But I got three new chicks today!!! Went to the feed store for feed and to ask how long it would take to order chicks and came home with 4 sex linked three week old chicks! Kids and I are having fun watching the newbies and listening to the lovely peeps

So hopefully this will help us be patient for that first elusive egg.