Are my girls lacking in something???

[angelambg]

My mom's chickens had very weak shells so she takes the shells from the eggs used, crushes them up and bakes them until they soften a little (they become easier to break up and not have sharp edges), then feeds them back to the chickens. It definitely helps.

 

[Barnyard Dawg]

Quote:
You can also use a mortar and pestle to crush and add it to their feed.

 

[Ravenxxx]

WOW so many ideas, im going to knock the corn on the head then even thou I only give them a handfull a day, and they love it more than their pellets, but if they are not suppose to have it, you can almost bet your life they would of prefer it more lol!!!

 

[bantymum]

Im sorry but this woman is very clucky and knows her chickenstuff, I dont want to deprive your littlies from their treat, mine love it as well, I give it from a can or fresh cooked/raw cob.
has anyone else heard this advice about corn in spring??
Ill post a new topic on this and see what they say, then make up your mind
Helen

 

[Ravenxxx]

Its all going pair shape at the minute!! Getting depressed too grrr!!!

We bought two more pullets from same place as my girls. All not well between them, and my girls seem to be getting very stressed that they are staying in their coop next to the newbies for most of the day. A few of my girls have turned on each other, they not used to staying in a small coop, so the introducing stage is not running smooth?!!

Anyway i managed to buy a bag of oyster shell from a pet store and have been leaving out a dish, they havent really seem interested. Think its because as soon as they are out of the coop they are off looking for bugs and stuff, they dont seem to come back to their coop very often. Then yesterday another rubbery egg in the coop, no shell in sight!!

The other day we found a egg outside which was a strange colour, it was half white and half brown. ill try and take a piccy of it.

Now im wondering if free range eggs are better, yes the chickens are happy and that is great but they dont eat what i want them too if you get me? Battery chickens eat what they are given so their eggs must be better???!!

OH IM CONFUSED BIG HELP NEEDED!!!!

 

[dlhunicorn]

And this morning i was having some scrambled egg when one i picked up was like a rubber ball when i went to crack it!!!

...this can (but not always) indicate your bird is having isues called internal layer/false layer
and this can lead to quite serious problems (I am giving you a link below discussing this)...reproductive problems in the laying hen ranges from the incidental occurrence to chronic (hard to tell beforehand) and this bird needs your vigilence >if it keeps occuring please post in the emergencies or disease and cures.
The softshell/no shell (since it is more than an "incidental"occurence and the "rubber" egg has also occured) indicates your bird/s at the very least that she may have a calcium problem...which unfortunately is also not always a simple thing to diagnose with a simple cure as offering oyster shell or such as there are also other elements in the nutrition that will affect the utilization of calcium....soooo (not meaning to discourage you here) my advice at this point is this:
if you are not offering oyster shell to your birds then you need to do so (offering a live acidolpholus culture yogurt will also help) ... keep a vigilant eye out on this bird...if she continues laying the softshelled eggs or the "rubber" eggs then post in emergencies and we will continue to look at the eventual problem more in-depth. Hopefully it is just a simple matter of needing an additional calcium source (which it often is). Here is that link I told you of earlier:

http://dlhunicorn.conforums.com/index.cgi?board=linksgeneralinfo&action=display&num=1158765194
(info on reproductive diseasse)

http://dlhunicorn.conforums.com/index.cgi?board=diseasecasestudies
the first three threads are from ezboardBYC location case histories which I have saved as they are real life examples of the problems mentioned above.​