eggs..no eggs...no shells?

[mmpmelmack]

Hi

I have several questions.....last weekend we got our first eggs, 3 one every day for three days. Then we had no eggs...now we have 2-3 eggs everyday with no shells. We have 8 plymouth white rocks (20 weeks) and 18 various breed 8 weekers. They are all housed togther, we have free range at night, they have layer and chick feed out, corn everyday, all my scraps, and have free choice to oyster shell. What is happening to my eggs?

and another thing...will it hurt my little chicks to eat layer ration? they only seem to want to eat what the big chicks eat. We dont want to clip wings, as we have seen them run and fly from the many predators we have here.

any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
Melissa

 

[Country Gal]

Hi Melissa,

I don't have an answer to the egg question...

But I'm pretty sure that you don't want your 8 weekers eating the laying ration. The layer ration has too much calcium and I think it screws with the younger chicks bones.

Good luck!
Kelly

 

[MissPrissy]

Sometimes it takes a little time for the process to truely mature and the eggs to develop properly. I would withhold everything but the layer feed, water and oyster shells to see if things beging to normalize. Your hen(s) may be eating too much of the vegetable scraps, corn, etc and not enough of the layer feed to improve their eggs.

I don't feed my chickens corn until winter time. It takes a lot of work for their bodies to digest the corn therefore they generate alot of heat. Perfect for keeping warm in winter.

Edited to add -

The calcium can also cause kidney problems in the younger chicks.