This is very interesting. I had a young hen, Dorothy, who laid soft eggs for a year. At first, calcium citrate plus D3 seemed to help her. However, eventually that stopped working. The only thing that ever seem to help after that was shredded zucchini. I never really knew if it truly helped or if it was just a coincidence, but it seemed every time she’d have zucchini, she’d lay a couple hard eggs. I always thought it was from the Manganese. Maybe your hen is pecking at it furiously because she instinctively knows it’s something she needs.When Vanille was really ill cucumber was all she would eat, in fact it's what lead me to post for the first time on BYC.
She's been unwell for the last three days after passing two soft shell eggs in a row, and with the heat. She has eaten nothing yesterday but today we gave the girls a zucchini that had overgrown and she's been pecking at it like crazy.
We've talked about how they choose to feed before when they are sick with Minnie. It's still pretty much a mystery to me if it's just individual taste preference or if they do have some instinct to get things that are right for them.
When humans are sick a bit of both happen.. sometimes you don't feel like eating and your body needs to fast for a while, or to only have broth. And sometimes you actually do need to eat to get better.
Last edited:
chicks in Xzit’s near future.
he sure looked cute 
