Hello to everyone!

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Alan B

Alan B

Hatching
5 Years
May 14, 2014
7
0
7
Quebec, Canada
Hello to everyone! I am new at this backyard chickens site and so far I have appreciated all of the comments I've read.

I live in Quebec, Canada. Although we live in a residential area, most of the city we live in is agricultural including many small horse ranches. We've built a coop with plenty of space to accommodate 5 RIR hens. We've had them since may 5th 2014 and things are going great. I am already getting between 3-4 eggs a day and the hens have only been laying for a week. They are 21 weeks old.

I've had two shell-less eggs in the last week and I've added some oyster shells on the ground and the hens have scratched them up really quick. I was wondering why those shell-less eggs were laid on the ground in the pen instead of the nests in the coop. Do hens know if the egg will be shell-less? Why do they not lay them in the nest like the others?

My chickens are fed a prepared chicken feed for layers from my local farmers Co-op so I think they have a balanced diet. I change their water dispenser twice a day, and give them some fresh cut grass at least every two days. Oh yes, almost forgot, my son enjoys feeding them worms he finds in the garden. They eat grass and worms like its candy!

Thanks for having me as a new member!
 
Welcome from Pennsylvania!
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I usually find the soft eggs in the nests, thankfully they're pretty rare. Maybe they were surprised?
I found it funny you mentioned candy- that's what I call their scratch- chicken candy
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Welcome to BYC!

Pullets can lay funky eggs at first before they get their egg laying machines in gear....shell less, wrinkled, small, wind eggs, out of round eggs, etc...It takes time for their reproductive tract to mature. Keep the oyster shell on hand at all times and keep it right next to the feeder so they will readily eat it. They won't go looking for it.

This should clear up over the next few months. If not, you can always post a question in the future in our emergency section, but funky eggs are common in newly laying pullets.

Enjoy your new flock and welcome to ours!
 
Welcome to BYC - frankly, I don't think they feel those soft shelled eggs until they are about to be passed. Given oyster shell and proper diet, they should all start laying normal eggs once their laying pattern is firmly established.
 
Hello :frow and Welcome To BYC! TwoCrows X2, weird eggs like shell-less ones are common when a pullet starts to lay. Since they are squishy and don't stop in the shell gland like they should, the hens don't seem to realize they are eggs and tend to lay them on the ground or off the roost or where ever they are at the moment... which is actually kind of good since if they break in the nest you have a mess.
 
Thank you for such a quick response.

What is scratch?

I've added about two cups of oyster shells straight on the ground (wood chips) and they've eaten all up. I read on the net that they can have too much oyster shell, is this true? I've also read to mix it in with the feed. That would be easy enough to do. Otherwise do I need a separate feeder for oyster shells?
 
What is labeled scratch at my local feed store is a mixture of cracked corn, whole oats, whole flaxseed, whole wheat & sunflower seeds. I feed it only as a treat- I typically keep 12-14 hens and throw out about a cup for them in their run. I've found it useful to train them (somewhat) to go in their run. I rattle the can and throw it over the run fence. I do try to time their free ranging in the yard where they can be out till dark but if I need to leave unexpectedly I can rattle the can and they come running! It's not a perfect system, there are usually a couple that forget where the run door is
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I personally do use a separate feeder for oyster shell. It works out well for me to use the small quart chick feeder, I only need to refill it every couple of weeks or so.
 
Chicks don't need the oyster sell till they are laying. Cockerels shouldn't have layer feed because they don't need calcium
 
Thank you. I will look for a small feeder to put the oyster shells.

What about egg size. Like I've written before, I have five 21 week old hens and they've only been laying for about a week and a half. I get from 3 to 4 eggs a day. I've noticed that there is a difference in egg size. Today one of the eggs was double the size of the others. I usually get a large egg and a couple of small ones. My question is, are the larger eggs from a hen in particular or does egg size vary from time to time from the same hen? In other words can a hen lay a small egg one day and a large egg the next?
 

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