How much longer til I get some eggs??

[newmarch2014]

She is most likely fine, it just looks like a soft shell egg (common in the first couple weeks) Make sure to remove all the remaining shell and yolk and throw them out. Have you started layer feed? If not make sure you are providing a calcium source for her to freely access like oyster shells (or in my house we just wash/dry/crush their own shells to feed back as calcium).

 

[msisco389]

She is most likely fine, it just looks like a soft shell egg (common in the first couple weeks) Make sure to remove all the remaining shell and yolk and throw them out. Have you started layer feed? If not make sure you are providing a calcium source for her to freely access like oyster shells (or in my house we just wash/dry/crush their own shells to feed back as calcium).

thanks for the help!! I already cleaned everything up and put some fresh hay in there. I haven't switched to layer yet since they are only 15 weeks and all of the other girls are less developed than she is. I will run out to TSC today to get some oyster shells for her!

 

[msisco389]

One problem right into the next I swear!! So since that first soft egg I posted last week....I have yet to find another in the nesting box. I wasn't too worried about it since I know she's still really young and trying to figure it out, UNTIL a song bird egg fell out of a tree and I saw all 10 hens swarm it and devower it!!! Since then I catch one of them here and there chasing each other with what looks like egg shells. I think I may even have more than one layer now but no eggs!!! Help!!

 

[newmarch2014]

uh oh, breaking egg eating is really hard, some say so hard they suggest culling. The recommended things to try are....eggs blown out and filled with mustard, keeping track of the laying and grabbing the egg as soon as it is laid, getting a rollaway nest which drops the egg away from the nest as soon as it is laid to a receptacle below. Once one teaches another it is hard to break though.

 

[msisco389]

uh oh, breaking egg eating is really hard, some say so hard they suggest culling. The recommended things to try are....eggs blown out and filled with mustard, keeping track of the laying and grabbing the egg as soon as it is laid, getting a rollaway nest which drops the egg away from the nest as soon as it is laid to a receptacle below. Once one teaches another it is hard to break though.

Dang!! Culling isn't an option so I guess it's onto trying to find a solution... I really have to figure out what their routine is. The one hen makes lots and lots of noise all day so I keep running out there to see if anything happened and it always seems like either it's not happening yet or I am missing it and am too late, I don't know how to decipher between the two.
I will definitely try the mustard thing too

 

[GitaBooks]

All my hens adore raw eggs, however, only one hen would regularly break eggs. I called her Egg-Eater, and we eventually got rid of her. Now the chickens rarely break eggs.
Dark nest boxes may make it harder for them to see the eggs.

 

[newmarch2014]

if you are able to get a cheap camera (some use a baby cam if close enough to the house) that allows you to see the egg box that helps. Then you can head out and keep an eye. They will sit while laying till the last minute or so they actually stand to lay so you will know when it is about to drop, then kick the hen off, let the egg dry and then pick it up.

 

[msisco389]

I guess all I had to do was complain! Lol
Just went out to the coop for another check and found this little nugget sitting in the nesting box!

Since I am working from home today, the hens get to free range all day, I think my problem may lie on the days they stay in the coop and run all day because I'm not home to watch them (lots of Hawks in our area) maybe they are bored and the result is they eat them before I get home?

 

[junebuggena]

Keeping some dummy eggs in the nest boxes helps to deter egg eating. They peck at the fake eggs and realise they can't be eaten. Make sure that they have access to plenty of calcium. The harder it is for them to break the eggs, the better.

 

[msisco389]

Okay!! Another weird problem!! Since the egg I posted aboved I have yet to find another in the nesting boxes! It seems that they are laying while roosting on the roosting bar and the eggs are falling to the floor and cracking upon impact. I am guessing this because I am finding them cracked open right under the roosting bar which is not near the nesting boxes. Does anyone know why they would do this?