Constant Cracked Eggs

[Ol Grey Mare]

It is worth at least adding supplemental calcium to see if that helps. If it does not you may have a bird with a bit of a glitch in the system which prevents the formation of a really nice shell. Not necessarily detrimental, it just might mean you need to adjust how you manage your eggs and nest boxes to try to accommodate and avoid breakage of her perpetually fragile shells

 

[ABQ chicken keeper]

All flock and layer are separate types of feed, layer feed has extra calcium added for laying hens while all flock does not. You can feed all flock to laying hens, but they absolutely must have access to oyster shell on the side (actually a good idea whatever you feed) and they must have access to grit on the side no matter what you feed

Thank you!

 

[urlocalcrazychickenlady]

 

[Yardmom]

Another source of calcium is feeding the egg shells back to the flock. It is not enough as the soul source, but might be enough when combined with the layer food being given.

 

[ABQ chicken keeper]

Ok thank you!!!

Yes they free range on 7 acres of pasture and woods.

Umm I am unsure, I’ll have to check and get back to you!

I hope you have an answer to your cracking egg problem. Check out threads like the following: "

Transitioning from Starter to Grower Feed Help "​

Keep us posted!

 

[R2elk]

Hey yall! I have a Rainbow hen who is constantly laying eggs that crack easily. Almost every day, her egg has a crack near the top. Possibly her shells are thinner? She lays quite large eggs. Our nesting boxes roll the eggs back, so it’s not like she’s pecking the egg. It’s usually only her egg cracked, but occasionally some others too. It’s never fully cracked, just a small fraction of the shell pushed inward. It’s been like this for 2-3 weeks now.

I have some hens that do this occasionally if the bedding in the nest boxes is too shallow. They squeeze the egg out so hard that you can hear when it hits the floor in the nest box. If it hits directly on the wood in my nest boxes it will get that "crack" where the egg hits.

The solution is to make sure that there is enough nest material that the egg is not hitting directly on a hard surface.

On the aspect of whether or not the hen is getting sufficient calcium, even though you are providing layer feed, it does not hurt to provide free choice oyster shell on the side.

Another issue that can happen is that some hens develop a vitamin D deficiency which affects their ability to properly process calcium into their system.