how can I improve calcium uptake?

[OrpingtonManor]

Quote:

I hope it's ephemeral, too, but not feeling good about that. I'm good with the eggs, though. Just living the austere egg-life.

 

[Chris09]

OrpingtonManor:
You can try --
Crushed oyster shells
Yogurt
Fishmeal
Boiled egg shells
Feed Grade Lime "Calcium Carbonate" (any good feed mill should have it)
You can also try Kelp Meal or even switch to a Breeder Feed it has alot more calcium in it than Layer Feed.
The other thing I would do is start giving them a good water soluble vitamin.. ( They could lacking some of the major Vit. needed for egg production )

Chris

 

[OrpingtonManor]

Quote:
Chris, I will try the vitamins, although I suspect there is something about this one bird's uptake. Everyone else is laying nice hard eggs, some even with extra calcium deposits. I'm even wondering if this bird has a thyroid issue. That can play havoc with calcium levels.

 

[dragonlair]

Vitamine D3 is what helps the body absorb calcium, maybe her body isn't making it for her? Maybe if you added some to her water or feed. I add a d3 tab to my girls water in the winter because they can't get outside. I want to make sure they can absorb the calcium form the crushed eggs shells and oyster shells they eat.

 

[Kung Foo Chicken]

I've been looking it up too.

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps029

There is a chart that lists deficiency, toxins, disease that cause shell-less eggs at the bottom.

Hopefully you can find something there.

 

[OrpingtonManor]

Quote:
D3 is the vitamin in the Durvet's so that's a start.

I guess I will have to get out the kitchen scale and weigh an ounce, then divide 110 by 8= 13.75 gallons from that single ounce of premix. Then, somehow, divide that ounce into roughly 14 parts to get the amount to mix in a gallon. Could this be more complicated?

 

[OrpingtonManor]

Quote:
I checked the chart, and it said no magnesium for chickens. Okay, that's out. Thanks!

 

[pips&peeps]

I was also going to suggest uping the vitamin D.

Also I just started feeding my birds red wheat. It runs about $15.00 a bag, but it is fully hulled and is quite heavy for a grain. It contains alot of calcium naturally.

 

[OrpingtonManor]

I'm going to at least add a pinch to the water right now. I can weigh and calculate later.
*orp zooming off to the coop------------------->*

 

[Mac in Wisco]

I doubt that it's a problem with calcium intake, especially if you have other birds that are doing fine on the same ration. Shell-less and very thin shelled eggs are usually caused by the hen laying the egg too early, before the process is complete (or possibly a bad shell gland). For what reasons they do this, I really don't know, but it's not due to a lack of calcium. Feeding them extra calcium isn't going to make them add a shell. We have 2500 hens and I typically find those kind of eggs laid at night, off of their normal laying cycle. 80% of our eggs are laid in the first four hours of the day and the other 20% within a few hours after that. Very, very few of our eggs are laid in the afternoon or the evening, yet I will walk through the barn late at night after they have gone to roost and will find a few of these on the floor, laid in the first few hours after the lights go out. Sometimes I believe it is from me disturbing them at night. I will walk through the barn with a flashlight, pass a group a hens, continue around to the other side of the barn, and on my way back will find that a bird has just laid a shell-less egg, almost as if I had scared it out of her. Whether that is possible or not, I don't know...