More than 2% of our eggs are odd

[Courtknee3R]

fairly new to chickens...

About half our eggs come out like they should. The other half have calcium deposits both as bumps on the shell and rings of white. A few have wrinkles in the shell.
The fault factors for these problems site, cramped conditions, stress in the flock, or disease.

we have 11 hens, they are free range, and the coop has 8 good size nesting boxes, so they shouldn't be cramped.

They seem happy, squawking around, burying in the dirt under a tree on a hot day, they never peck at one another, the only stress I can think of is very rarely they run out of water (it happens maybe weekly as it is a kid's chore, all about learning here).

That leaves disease, but wouldn't a sick chicken act sick? Our hens are spunky! Sneaking in the house at times and acting like they know they shouldn't be there... Should I be concerned or just let it be and assume our dirt has high calcium content naturally.

I don't mind if the shells aren't grade A as long as they are healthy to eat and come from healthy birds

Thanks so much!!

 

[Kelsie2290]

We get them occasionally but it is odd that you are getting that many eggs with excess calcium on the shell. Have they been doing it for a long time or is it a new thing, how old are the birds? When they run out of water, how long are they out? Laying hens are really sensitive to water and it may affect them for several days afterwards if it was long, water shortage is one of the things listed as a cause for pimpled eggs. With the calcium, what is the level of the food they are getting, do you feed anything that would be high in calcium as treats?

 

[Courtknee3R]

They get produce/bread scraps (cucumber, apples, dried up tortillas, carrots), layer crumbles from a local source, and corn. Water outage might be a couple hours. We check every few hours on hot days but we have clarified what full means, so it happens less and less. I will stay more on top of the water and see if the instances of calcium deposits decreases. Thank you

 

[aart]

Curious also about how old the birds are and how long they've been laying??


Provide oyster shell in a separate container all the time.

Chances are that with all those other foods (depending on the ratios) they are not eating enough of the layer crumble to get enough calcium......in fact they may not be eating enough of the crumbles to get other essential vitamins and minerals as well. Vitamin D is essential for calcium absorption.

I free feed a 20% protein all flock crumble to all ages and genders, oyster shell always available in a separate container for the layers, then give scratch grain (30-50% volume of the crumble) in the afternoons along with other scraps occasionally.

 

[Courtknee3R]

They hatched spring of 2013, have been living with us since June. Not sure exactly how long they have been laying.

To ensure they are eating enough crumble should we not let them free range the entire day? Keep them in their pen a few hours in the morning?

Also, I thought calcium deposits were from too much calcium and so I stopped the oyster shell... is it just from an imbalance in the calcium vs protein levels?

 

[A6chickenhome]

Mine are to! I can't figure out why my black austrolorp hens are laying such a high percentage of oddly shaped eggs. I give them a well balanced organic layer feed and they don't get many treats. They did have worms but have been getting diatomaceous earth for about 2 weeks and I haven't been seeing the worms in the poop nearly as much. I've caught my daughter chasing the chickens so she hasn't had access to them for about a week. Anyone know how long the eggs that have been developing in a hens body take to travel though their development?

 

[A6chickenhome]

Oh and my problem isn't calcium spots, it's oddly shaped eggs, like pointy on both ends or just a bit wrinkly. Sometimes they seem to light in color to me also. Anyone have any thoughts?

 

[aart]

They hatched spring of 2013, have been living with us since June. Not sure exactly how long they have been laying.

To ensure they are eating enough crumble should we not let them free range the entire day? Keep them in their pen a few hours in the morning?

Also, I thought calcium deposits were from too much calcium and so I stopped the oyster shell... is it just from an imbalance in the calcium vs protein levels?

I'd just cut out everything but layer crumble, oyster shell and free ranging for a month and see what happens.
Maybe give them some meat scraps to up the protein, but corn and bread are junk food, not much nutrition there and crumble feed is already a lot of corn.

 

[aart]

Mine are to! I can't figure out why my black austrolorp hens are laying such a high percentage of oddly shaped eggs. I give them a well balanced organic layer feed and they don't get many treats. They did have worms but have been getting diatomaceous earth for about 2 weeks and I haven't been seeing the worms in the poop nearly as much. I've caught my daughter chasing the chickens so she hasn't had access to them for about a week. Anyone know how long the eggs that have been developing in a hens body take to travel though their development?

DE will NOT kill internal parasites....get an appropriate medication and really get rid of them.

 

[A6chickenhome]

Hey there aart,

Just curious where you heard DE doesn't kill internal parasites?