- Nov 24, 2013
- 5
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hello everyone
I live in Italy. I acquired 5 hens in October. I was sold five "blacks" and a "big Rey"!! I would think the blacks are an Astrolorpe cross and the other possibly has a bit of Rhode Island Red in the background!!
Within 10 day one black "Queenie" started laying and has laid an egg a day since, she laid 43 before the others started. Now they are all in lay and I am getting 3/4 eggs a day.
They have an enclosed run and house within where they sleep at night. Other wise they have free run of pretty large area of our garden. They always think it is better the other side of the fence!!!
I feed them a proprietary layers food, mixed 30/70 with a mix of grains supplied by a local and reliable merchant. They have access to a supply of crushed shell; as well. There is a mix of sand and dry earth where they like a bath and there is always a bit of wood ash around as well.
The daily treat is a couple of cooked potatoes with half a slice of wholemeal bread with a little vitamin supplement mixed in. They have a handful of corn just before going to roost.
One of them Totty, thus named as she has a bit of a strange gait; I think she may have been slightly I injured when they crated her; she seems to lay on the floor of the sleeping compartment. She eats well and behaves well just has this odd gait.
This morning I discovered two eggs without shells. One had been broken the other was on the floor of the run. I had another like this a week or so ago, on the floor of the sleeping compartment, which is when I started the supplement. I think it is Totty but can't be sure. All the other eggs are laid in the nest box of the house or the other nest box I have provided.
I am sorry to write at length but it would be useful to have any comments you may have about this.
Regards to everyone
I live in Italy. I acquired 5 hens in October. I was sold five "blacks" and a "big Rey"!! I would think the blacks are an Astrolorpe cross and the other possibly has a bit of Rhode Island Red in the background!!
Within 10 day one black "Queenie" started laying and has laid an egg a day since, she laid 43 before the others started. Now they are all in lay and I am getting 3/4 eggs a day.
They have an enclosed run and house within where they sleep at night. Other wise they have free run of pretty large area of our garden. They always think it is better the other side of the fence!!!
I feed them a proprietary layers food, mixed 30/70 with a mix of grains supplied by a local and reliable merchant. They have access to a supply of crushed shell; as well. There is a mix of sand and dry earth where they like a bath and there is always a bit of wood ash around as well.
The daily treat is a couple of cooked potatoes with half a slice of wholemeal bread with a little vitamin supplement mixed in. They have a handful of corn just before going to roost.
One of them Totty, thus named as she has a bit of a strange gait; I think she may have been slightly I injured when they crated her; she seems to lay on the floor of the sleeping compartment. She eats well and behaves well just has this odd gait.
This morning I discovered two eggs without shells. One had been broken the other was on the floor of the run. I had another like this a week or so ago, on the floor of the sleeping compartment, which is when I started the supplement. I think it is Totty but can't be sure. All the other eggs are laid in the nest box of the house or the other nest box I have provided.
I am sorry to write at length but it would be useful to have any comments you may have about this.
Regards to everyone
and Welcome To BYC! X3, if you are feeding a lot of treats/grain, do make sure they have oyster shell free choice or other sources of calcium available, but with young layers a range of odd eggs like shell less eggs, double yolks, odd shaped ones etc are pretty common. There are a bunch of other causes, but with only one new layer doing it in the whole flock, I would wonder if it is related to her age/health and not dietary since it is usually an immature/defective shell gland and not a lack of calcium. If she has a shell gland defect it couple be related to her ability to use the calcium correctly in making a shell, only time will tell that if it doesn't straighten out. Since the one you think is doing that is also lame, it could be disease related and you probably want to check into that (might want to post on the Emergencies forum about the lame girl) , but again with only one doing it, hopefully it is not and just something going on with the one hen.
