California - Northern

[ronott1]

I had never heard that that term and had to look up "trapnests". I hate when some band gives themselves a wierd name and then they are the only thing that comes up in searches. I did find one that actually defined it That would sure come in handy. I have one Marans hen that I think is laying plain old light brown eggs and I'd like to know which one it is. Do you know of a site that might have more info on them?

Some put food color on the vent and then look for the egg with the color on it. It has mixed reviews though.

 

[minmin1258]

@farmhand posted a picture of a Beautiful Cream Legbar X RIR pullet that hatched yesterday on the Cream Legbar Hybrid thread. I hope we get to see some pictures here soon!

I started out only planning to breed my Marans. But then started adding this, then that. And the last day I had one more spot left so I picked up a RIR egg in the Cream Legbar Ro pin. She's now my favorite.

She's pretty, looks like my two chicks from my HRIR roo and Red Sexlink...

 

[PetRock]

@juststruttin -on the above post: are you sure she's an egg eater? I swore up and down my hens were. I put a video camera in the catch who's doing it and cull. To my surprise…It was a blue Scrub Jay! He would break a hole in them, take a sip, and leave. All day long he was breaking them. The hens would clean up the left overs. I wouldn't have believed it, but I got the video to show me

The same thing happens here. If I leave the big side door open on the coop, the scrub jay flies in there and pecks the eggs. He hasn't figured out how to fly into the run and then into the small door. I should say yet! Those scrub jays are smart birds!

 

[juststruttin]

I posted a very long post last Fall about why egg eating hens is a myth.

The basic point is that egg eating is caused by a problem with the eggs. It is a natural behavior of the Hens so fixing the egg hardness problem will end the egg eating.

If she is eating her eggs then the shells are too soft. She may be laying soft shelled eggs. If it is a problem that is not correctable then she may need to be culled.

The habit may have started when she accidentally cracked a weak egg but egg eating is now a well established habit.

I am certain weak eggs are not the problem. She was breaking and eating the Bresse eggs when she was in that coop. I was getting 1-2 sometimes yolk splattered eggs when she lived with the Bresse and now that she has been removed I am getting 3-4 clean beautiful eggs everyday. I have already hatched 3 batches of Bresse eggs this year and the shell quality is good.

 

[WendyJeepchick]

Right Egghead! Duh! I've been hanging around chickens too long.

 

[ronott1]

The habit may have started when she accidentally cracked a weak egg but egg eating is now a well established habit.

I am certain weak eggs are not the problem. She was breaking and eating the Bresse eggs when she was in that coop. I was getting 1-2 sometimes yolk splattered eggs when she lived with the Bresse and now that she has been removed I am getting 3-4 clean beautiful eggs everyday. I have already hatched 3 batches of Bresse eggs this year and the shell quality is good.

On a recent thread, bekissed said that in her 40 something years she has never had an egg eater. Once the eggs get harder they stop eating them.

I have had hens with soft eggs--the soft egg makes the others go into a frenzy and they will break the other hard eggs.

Briefly, the story I told was about my Father In Law that took each hen he saw with egg in it's beak out and shot it. He very quickly had not more chickens. He had a flock of Egg eaters I suppose. It made me sad.

There is a thing we do where we put human characteristics on animals. Chickens do not make habits like we do. They quickly forget things which is why they can be re homed into a new coop by locking them in for three days. They forget their flock mates quickly too.

If you fix the egg shell problem the egg eating will go away.

 

[juststruttin]

so this is new: i got home from work and one of the five chicks, one of the big beefy marans, is suddenly having trouble keeping its balance, if it tries to walk it kind of staggers -- and when i pick it up, its constantly opening and closing its mouth, almost like with each breath -- has anyone ever seen this kind of thing? it's not audibly gasping, but clearly is really struggling for some reason -- it's 5 days old, and before this has been healthy & strong.

any ideas?

I think you can pretty much rule out Mareks since it is too young to show symptoms.

It could be a vitamin deficiency, The symptoms sound like a vitamin E deficiency but it could have other vitamin deficiencies as well. Do you have an "Save a Chick" on hand? I would separated this chick to be on the safe side. Some respiratory diseases are passed vertically so you want to rule out a disease before exposing your other chicks.

 

[juststruttin]

On a recent thread, bekissed said that in her 40 something years she has never had an egg eater. Once the eggs get harder they stop eating them.

I have had hens with soft eggs--the soft egg makes the others go into a frenzy and they will break the other hard eggs.

Briefly, the story I told was about my Father In Law that took each hen he saw with egg in it's beak out and shot it. He very quickly had not more chickens. He had a flock of Egg eaters I suppose. It made me sad.

There is a thing we do where we put human characteristics on animals. Chickens do not make habits like we do. They quickly forget things which is why they can be re homed into a new coop by locking them in for three days. They forget their flock mates quickly too.

If you fix the egg shell problem the egg eating will go away.

You are welcome to come over and inspect my eggs.

 

[lawatt]

I think you can pretty much rule out Mareks since it is too young to show symptoms.

It could be a vitamin deficiency, The symptoms sound like a vitamin E deficiency but it could have other vitamin deficiencies as well. Do you have an "Save a Chick" on hand? I would separated this chick to be on the safe side. Some respiratory diseases are passed vertically so you want to rule out a disease before exposing your other chicks.

thanks! it's now separated in the incubator, nice and warm, and i don't have "save a chick" on hand but i did give it a drop or two of poly-vi-sol, and will give more later/tomorrow -- just wanted to let it rest for a while. but thank you for the suggestions!! i will report back in the morning...

 

[juststruttin]

thanks Ron -- yes, super-young, i can't imagine they've had enough time to develop a fungus -- i've given is some poly-vi-sol, and will encourage it to eat/drink... poor little kid!

edit: it doesn't help that its siblings keep standing on when it falls over -- i might pop it back in the empty incubator for a little while, just to give it some peace?

edit 2 -- it also shakes/twitches its head a lot. hmm.

Oh, I just read you gave it Poly-Vi-Sol. If it is a vitamin def. that should help. You can ignore my suggestion about giving it Save a Chick. Poly-Vi-Sol is even better since it also has Thiamine.

Good luck.