Broken Egg from Leghorn Almost Every Day

[BigBlueHen53]

Wow, that's great! U a good chicken momma!

 

[jlwquilter]

Wow, that's great! U a good chicken momma!

Not really unfortunately. I made a lot of mistakes that me and the flock are still dealing with. But we are finally better overall and will just have to deal with stuff as it comes up. I’m doing the absolute best I can and it’s just going to have to be good enough. The poor hens are paying for my ignorance and I feel really bad about that. But there’s nothing to do but learn and get better, which is what we all do in life right? We are going to enjoy the the time we have together to the fullest!

 

[jlwquilter]

I watched Angel eat out of the eggshell feeder. Her comb was hitting the top of the opening. That doesn’t happen on the other hens. I thought maybe it was bothering the leghorns. So I cut the opening higher which was easy to do. I’ll watch tomorrow to see if it helps.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Trial and error is how most of us learn anything, unfortunately. As I used to tell my kids: Some people learn from the mistakes of others. The rest of us ARE the "others."

 

[jlwquilter]

So far so good today. No soft eggs on the roosting boards or floor! 2 days in a row is a record.

Buffy who hasn’t laid for sure in several days - and the last day I know for sure she laid is July 4- is in the chicken shack nest box. It’s in the run in a separate structure. She has a lot of peace in there as it’s rarely used, but she has used once or twice in the past. Fingers crossed!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

So far so good today. No soft eggs on the roosting boards or floor! 2 days in a row is a record.

Buffy who hasn’t laid for sure in several days - and the last day I know for sure she laid is July 4- is in the chicken shack nest box. It’s in the run in a separate structure. She has a lot of peace in there as it’s rarely used, but she has used once or twice in the past. Fingers crossed!

 

[jlwquilter]

Well dang. A soft leghorn egg this morning by the pop door which is across the coop from the roost boards. Blows my 4 day streak.

Hmmm. Is it just a coincidence that I stopped adding the fine crushed eggshells (I had used the word powdered before but I think fine crushed is more accurate) to the feed a day and a half ago...? Both the layer pellet feeder and the egg shell feeder are noticeably lower so they are getting eaten.

I was so happy thinking this had been resolved one way or the other. Grr. Time to put the thinking cap Back on- lol!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Hmmm, yeah sounds like the crushed eggshells were working. May I ask why you stopped?

 

[jlwquilter]

I was getting pushback from here that adding the shells directly to the feed was a very bad idea. I didn’t believe it as I’m adding a modest amount to a feed that has very little in it already (flock raiser) and lord know Purina makes millions off of adding calcium to their feed and people buy it BECAUSE it has the calcium added.

I’m new at chicken keeping and am finding my way. I certainly need information and respect the expertise of the great folks on here.

I have been adding layer pellets to the mash to get calcium in that way but really, what’s the difference?! This is all within a handful of days
Donuts hard to know what’s working, what’s not and what could have longer term effects both good and bad.

But yea, I’m going back to adding fine crushed eggshells to their evening fermented feed for a few days and see what happens.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I'm new to a lot of this too. The only issue I can see is if you have chickens other than layers, but I could be wrong. My understanding is that if things like crushed shells and oyster shell is made available separately from their feed, then those chickens that need it will help themseves. But if we mix it with their feed, then an overload of calcium can be harmful to those that don't, it's hard on their kidneys.

I've just learned that here, recently, so am switching over to an all-flock formula so I don't harm my roosters and spent hens.