Hi,
3 of my 4 BR pullets started laying a month ago. All has been going well, except I seem to have one "late bloomer" who grew very large but her comb and wattles were late to develop. I think she FINALLY started laying this week, a full month after her sisters, but each of her eggs has had a single puncture in it, presumably from a peck. The first egg got missed for a couple of days--it was found under the roosts in the poop tray with a peck hole in it. I ignored it for a couple of days because I thought it was one of our fake eggs that had gotten kicked out of the nest boxes, until my husband discovered otherwise. Today, she laid again, and I found her egg in the nest box with another egg, and only hers has a hole in it. No egg had been eaten.
I do think the late bloomer is the egg pecker, simply because her sisters have all been laying for a month now with no issues. She is the biggest one, and not the lowest on the pecking order.
The nest boxes have lots of pine shavings in them and are not bottoming out, there are two nest boxes for the 4 birds.
They are eating Purina Organic pellets, which I see has oyster shell in it. Their egg shells are all VERY strong and take a lot of work to crack open, but do I need to add a separate serving of just oyster shell? They are in a rather large coop and run, and free range for at least several hours a day in a wild pasture area with lots of bugs, plants, seeds, flowers, and vegetables to eat. I can't imagine what else they might need, (but I'm a newbie so what do I know! lol!)
Any idea why she is doing this? Will she become a P.I.T.A. egg eater? We like her and she's one of the friendliest ones we have. (so we'd rather not eat her!) Thanks!!
3 of my 4 BR pullets started laying a month ago. All has been going well, except I seem to have one "late bloomer" who grew very large but her comb and wattles were late to develop. I think she FINALLY started laying this week, a full month after her sisters, but each of her eggs has had a single puncture in it, presumably from a peck. The first egg got missed for a couple of days--it was found under the roosts in the poop tray with a peck hole in it. I ignored it for a couple of days because I thought it was one of our fake eggs that had gotten kicked out of the nest boxes, until my husband discovered otherwise. Today, she laid again, and I found her egg in the nest box with another egg, and only hers has a hole in it. No egg had been eaten.
I do think the late bloomer is the egg pecker, simply because her sisters have all been laying for a month now with no issues. She is the biggest one, and not the lowest on the pecking order.
The nest boxes have lots of pine shavings in them and are not bottoming out, there are two nest boxes for the 4 birds.
They are eating Purina Organic pellets, which I see has oyster shell in it. Their egg shells are all VERY strong and take a lot of work to crack open, but do I need to add a separate serving of just oyster shell? They are in a rather large coop and run, and free range for at least several hours a day in a wild pasture area with lots of bugs, plants, seeds, flowers, and vegetables to eat. I can't imagine what else they might need, (but I'm a newbie so what do I know! lol!)
Any idea why she is doing this? Will she become a P.I.T.A. egg eater? We like her and she's one of the friendliest ones we have. (so we'd rather not eat her!) Thanks!!
