⠀ BAD EGGS

[rir264]

@EggSighted4Life : How was that? I did not know that so thanks for telling me. I haven't really done a lot of talking back and forth I am just usually thanking someone for their post so this is new to me. I do a lot of reading of older posting and usually find my answers but it so nice to conserve with someone. Now that I do not work I have more time on my hands even though the chickies do require a lot, LOL

I am feeding 22 total of which there are 3 Red Sussix, 1 Gold Sex Link, ! New Hampshire Red, 3 EE's, 13 Bantam and 5 of them are Roosters. Yes, most of the roosters get along except they like to pick on Charlie who is crippled but he can get around it just takes a little time.

I am going to read the thread on fermenting and then I will get with you and ask you about your tricks, but before I do that let me ask you this I have oodles of ants how do I keep them out of the food, or would it just be a benefit to the chicken? Can there be to many that it could hurt the chicken? I know that that sounds kinda weird but these ants do bite and there would be a ton of them in the food I don't know if my chickens would eat it if they saw it moving

I know they like to watch TV, whenever I have either little ones inside or a hurt/sick chicken I let them watch TV gives them something to do and it is quite entertaining for me!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Ah, that's funny. Chicken tv means us watching them and their antics.

When I volunteered at the zoo rehab, we kept ants out of feed by placing the dish inside a small but wider container (like a planter bottom) filled with water (although I know sometimes ants will form a raft). I have heard they will not cross a line of vaseline either. A line (or circle) of dish soap works well except it evaporates and dries out to fast. I haven't had a problem with ants in my fermented feed, but they do come after the melon rinds. It might be a little trial and error.

I have been bitten by an ant in the desert... and it hurt for hours if not days! The ones we had in the city would bite but those just stung for a short while. I think I see my chickens eat ants, but not all the time. And yesterday one of my 4 week old chicks took down a bee and them consumed it!

Another way if you want someone to know you are speaking to them is to "quote" them by using that little button. I find it especially useful when trying to ask a specific persons' advice.

I also don't work!

and while I don't consider it to be full on chat, I do enjoy the interactions with a lot of really well meaning people on this forum. And sometimes their is plenty to chat about.

My name is Alyssa, it is nice to meet you. Be sure to consider many peoples' input when you get a chance, cuz what works for one person in one location doesn't fit all.

One last thing I love is poo boards! Check 'em out if you don't already have them.

Have a really great day... and post us some recovered egg pics!

 

[DrPatrickBiggs]

I would like to know why when I changed over to the Purina Layena with Oyster why did I start to get bad eggs? I had no bad eggs before this the hens were laying nice large beautifully hard shelled eggs and then they slowly started to do really funky things. First they began to get smaller, then wrinkled, then the egg shell quality went down, I was getting less and less eggs to where I may have gotten an egg every three days (when they were laying 5 eggs each a week), then I started to get eggs with very light shells that would break when the chicken would expelied it, then with no shells at all and of course the one that came that was just plain stinky and gross. And before you say it I did not take away their oyster shell. I am still having problems with one bird she has not come back from it all yet. THE ONLY thing that I changed at that time was the food. Since I have gone back to the other food that I was feeding prior my production is better not where I want it but better, after all these things do take time and we are in a VERY hot summer and they have begun to molt my egg shell quality is better and the eggs are larger. So can you all tell me WHY?

Hi rir264,

Thank you for trying Purina Layena and checking back in. Determining a change in egg production can be difficult. There are many factors that contribute to a bird’s egg production. How old are the birds? When did they molt last? Is it too hot? Are they being stressed by a predator or something else in their environment? Do they have constant access to water? Are you providing feed such as snacks, treats, scratch to your birds? Are you exceeding a 10% treat level? Are they receiving enough light? Do you have a disease issue going on in your flock?

All of these things play a role – along with the feed – in how well your hens lay eggs. I have not seen nor would I expect Purina Layena with Oyster Strong System to cause your birds to stop laying eggs. It is difficult to give you a solid answer without a thorough investigation of the situation. It may have just been unfortunate timing. Perhaps your birds were beginning to go through a molt at the same time that you switched to Layena. By the time that you made the switch to back to your original feed, the hens were beginning to return to production.

We are proud to stand behind our products and would be happy to discuss a solution. Please give us a call at 1-800-227-8941 so we can discuss further.