Well here is the story....... we have 5 BR, 6 RR and 5 EE pullets who over the last few weeks have started laying and up until this week things have been great. sweet little pullet eggs and even a few double yolkers, about 5 per day. but for the last few days we have found 1 or 2 broken jelly eggs under the roost every morning. THey are being fed Layer Feed, free range most of the day and get treats of meal worms, yogurt, and kitchen scraps.... yes they are spoiled ANyway, should I give them oyster shell too? or will the jelly eggs get better over time? I know it can take some time to get everything working right but with them getting broken I don't want to end up with egg eaters, I clean up as soon as I go out in the morning. So should I do anything? UPDATE.... Well i got some oyster shell and from what I can tell the ladies are just ignoring it! Found another 2 broken jelly eggs this morning....I guess I will give it a couple more days....just hate cleaning up broken eggs every morning
I always offer a bowl of shell supplemental, no matter what I am feeding. That way they can take it if they need it. When they don't need it, they ignore the bowl.
Sometimes when they free range alot, they don't get enough of the layer feed because they're eating other yummy things, so I think maybe they don't get enough calcium. I think you've got a good idea in feeding them some oyster shell. This shall pass.
I am experiencing this myself right now. Somedays I get two nice eggs with shells tough as nails. Three nice double yolkers so far. On some others days only one good egg and the other a soft one left under the roosting pole. I only have two laying right now they are about 20 weeks old. I just figure they are new at it and they need to work the kinks out of their system. At least that's what I've been reading here. They have oyster shell available as well.
