RIP Taz
Heck... BYC won’t even know that I’m gone, until I get back home. So happy flyingAlright... Tuesday I lost a friend. Taz Sullivan was flying his self created aircraft out of Porterville airport CA. crashed and burned near the tree line. He was a great pilot, and a patriot soldier to the USA . He will be missed. But I am still going to fly today, at sunrise my flight plan is confirmed. And I will be back before the chickens even miss me....
I don't know the scale Bob, but will that roost be long enough for 3 hens? What about a second roost for if they are annoying each other? Perhaps on the diagonal.
Oh dear. Someone laid an egg with no shell. A whole egg, but just in a membrane not any hard shell at all.
That is a calcium issue I assume.
They are on layer feed and have oyster shell and crumbled egg shells available whenever they want so I wonder if someone isn't absorbing the calcium properly.
I gave a crushed up human calcium with vitamin D pill in scrambled egg and will give another one at bedtime (I think night is when they form the shell so when they need most calcium).
Any other ideas? I heard different kinds of calcium are easier to absorb but I am not sure what the best kind is. I am hoping the vitamin D is OK as well.
Any advice welcome!
( or maybe it was cucumber? Something long and green I think anyway.)
That sounds pretty thorough Marie. What was the treatment for ? Why cider vinegar and salt in the water? How does it work? (I'm taking notes for myself hereThey aren't so happy with me Bob. They just had a wash with cider vinegar salt and water. Wattles legs, feet and their bottoms. Then all had a rub with coconut oil. I'm not so popular tonight
)
They are polish, they don’t see well enough anyways.
So kind of like getting a budgie to "step up" but instead of pressing your finger against their chest you press your whole hand against the back of the leg to get them to "step back".The idea is to apply firm upward pressure, not tap.
The place to apply pressure is at the back of I.
When the chicken is roosting the bone "I" should be more or less parallel to the ground/nearest flat surface.
That's so great that all your effort paid off.I was about to update everyone on Peanut's progress on this! Calcium Citrate is what @DobieLover recommended as more absorbable [EDIT @DobieLover says use 600mg per chicken], and Vit D3 helps to make is more "bioavailable" also. Same as humans.
Yes, soft shell eggs were once in a while, and then became a regular occurrence. Someone or more in the tribe was laying a softshell egg off and on, and then for a stretch of days, with 4 days in a row in there. I figured out it was Peanut on at least one of those days. So I initiated a calcium supplement for everyone if they wanted it, but focusing on getting Peanut to take it. I transitioned them to Nutrena Feather Fixer as @BY Bob recommended over about a week. I can only get it in pellets. They like it better than the crumbles dry, but turned up their noses at mash made from it.
While waiting for the feed to come and into this week I've kept making a calcium supplement crushed and mixed with greek yogurt and a little bit of the old feed crumbles. No molasses in there anymore, they like it as is. I've used both calcium citrate +D3 and Assorted Berry Tums (which have no D). @DobieLover recommended 600mg per bird, so that's about 1 Tums [EDIT mine says 750 mg per tab on the bottle] or 2 calcium citrate + D3 pills [EDIT it says two will make 630 mgs on the bottle - these amounts vary on the make so check the bottle] per chicken. They will eat from the little mash pile directly but like to take (and I like offering it) in little balls to them. Everyone takes some, Popcorn and Hazel some, Butters now and then. But Peanut has consistently been taking it and seems eager for it (or maybe because I focused on her, it's now "her" thing?
Well today Peanut laid a perfect, oblong, firm shelled egg! Yay!
Thanks for sharing all that useful info too.
Ugh. It is getting hot here too - but on reflection I think I have had a calcium problem for a while with either Elizabeth or Diana or both. Their eggs have thinner shells than the road runners for sure. I always thought of it as the road runners having very thick shells but maybe theirs are normal and the others are thin.
I don't have this problem but would like to learn what to do if it should happen. I can't fathom anything written out at the moment.The idea is to apply firm upward pressure, not tap.
The place to apply pressure is at the back of I.
When the chicken is roosting the bone "I" should be more or less parallel to the ground/nearest flat surface.
