Need help with thin shelled eggs

[drjulian]

Lol, I hope you got your porcelain egg back!

-Kathy

Yes I did!

 

[drjulian]

You could also try some vitamin supplements. They will help the ducks better absorb additional calcium.

Oh my, an egg-stealing snake would defiantly be stressful. I don't know if it might be a delayed reaction; I have no personal experience just knowledge from research. You said there were a couple of days with no eggs. Could there be another snake or something else taking the eggs?

I add rooster booster to their feed year round. I have tried the liquid supplements added to water but since they have access to the pond during the day, they will hold out and not drink the vitamin water. Guess it does not taste good.

I now have a 24 hour surveillance on the nesting box and I have not seen any evidence of other predators. Our run is fenced and covered (orchard net) and the coop is screened. I know this does not stop a snake (obviously) or a thin rat but we do have a barn cat that hangs out right outside the run fence. If something else is getting to the eggs it must be invisible, but I rule nothing out!

The ducks do spend a lot of time at night in the nesting box, each taking turns sitting on the nest (they have access to three boxes at their level but they insist on one huge nest in the middle of the box that they all share, go figure)

 

[casportpony]

Lol, I hope you got your porcelain egg back! -Kathy

Yes I did!

Excellent! -Kathy

 

[drjulian]

Are you good at math? If so, weigh the the amount of powder in a scoop and figure out how many scoops of powder you need to give each hen about 50mg per pound. If you aren't good at math, let me know how much a scoop weighs and I'll give a a try.

-Kathy

Not great at math (my Ph.D. is in Psychology , but I will give it a shot.

The ducks are about 6 lbs each so 300 mg per duck. Each scoop is 2 g so I have been giving them about 2000mg per day for the 3 to split or 660 mg each (assuming they all get an equal share). Maybe I am overdosing them?

Might too MUCH calcium cause the thin shells? When the eggs were normal I would see occasion specks of calcium (shell) on the outside of the shells but it was not all the time.

 

[drjulian]

Excellent!

-Kathy

I hesitated posting that picture because I did not want to offend the snake lovers

 

[casportpony]

 
Are you good at math? If so, weigh the the amount of powder in a scoop and figure out how many scoops of powder you need to give each hen about 50mg per pound. If you aren't good at math, let me know how much  a scoop weighs and I'll give a a try.

-Kathy 

  Not great at math (my Ph.D. is in Psychology , but I will give it a shot.
  
  The ducks are about 6 lbs each so 300 mg per duck. Each scoop is 2 g so I have been giving them about 2000mg per day for the 3 to split or 660 mg each (assuming they all get an equal share). Maybe I am overdosing them?

  Might too MUCH calcium cause the thin shells? When the eggs were normal I would see occasion specks of calcium (shell) on the outside of the shells but it was not all the time.

The minimum calcium in your powder is 38%? I think that means that there are 380mg calcium per gram, so 760mg per scoop?

-kathy

 

[casportpony]

Excellent!


-Kathy

I hesitated posting that picture because I did not want to offend the snake lovers

You might want to edit the title and add a graphic picture warning. I like snakes, but the picture does not offend me.

-Kathy

 

[drjulian]

I gave them a larger-then-normal dose of calcium yesterday, and, sadly, this morning, again, all the duck eggs were broken and the shells were thin as paper.

I did more research and I have a theory:

I am giving them tons of calcium and they get a great deal from our soil and their diet, so, I am beginning to think that calcium is NOT the problem. However, for them to properly metabolize the calcium, they must have sufficient vitamin D.

Now we are in the so-called 'sunshine state' of FL (a misnomer by the way), and we have had an exceptionally bad rainy season this year with over 52" of rain since May. (almost twice our YEARLY average). Additionally, we have had full weeks where the sun never came out (I am especially aware of this because we have solar panels on our roof and when there is no sun, we wind up using more power from the electric company (grrrr).

Anyway, since birds do receive vitamin D from the sun, like all animals, and since we have had almost no sunshine since May, it is not a great reach to assume that they are lacking in vitamin D.

To test this theory, I am going to give them vitamin D for a couple of days, without changing anything else that I have been doing, and see what happens. One thing I have noticed is that changes in their diet seem to have an immediate effect on their eggs, so it will not be long before I have my answer.

It seems very logical to me that without the sun, all the calcium in the world may not be enough for their body's to produce solid shells.


I will report back and let you know the results and if they are positive, maybe it will help someone else with a similarly frustrating problem.

 

[casportpony]

D might help.

-Kathy

 

[JadeComputerGal]

I gave them a larger-then-normal dose of calcium yesterday, and, sadly, this morning, again, all the duck eggs were broken and the shells were thin as paper.

I did more research and I have a theory:

I am giving them tons of calcium and they get a great deal from our soil and their diet, so, I am beginning to think that calcium is NOT the problem. However, for them to properly metabolize the calcium, they must have sufficient vitamin D.

Now we are in the so-called 'sunshine state' of FL (a misnomer by the way), and we have had an exceptionally bad rainy season this year with over 52" of rain since May. (almost twice our YEARLY average). Additionally, we have had full weeks where the sun never came out (I am especially aware of this because we have solar panels on our roof and when there is no sun, we wind up using more power from the electric company (grrrr).

Anyway, since birds do receive vitamin D from the sun, like all animals, and since we have had almost no sunshine since May, it is not a great reach to assume that they are lacking in vitamin D.

To test this theory, I am going to give them vitamin D for a couple of days, without changing anything else that I have been doing, and see what happens. One thing I have noticed is that changes in their diet seem to have an immediate effect on their eggs, so it will not be long before I have my answer.

It seems very logical to me that without the sun, all the calcium in the world may not be enough for their body's to produce solid shells.


I will report back and let you know the results and if they are positive, maybe it will help someone else with a similarly frustrating problem.

LOL. Good catch. I was reading through this thread and was going to ask when I finished it what your weather has been like lately. Vitamin D is not easily available from food, and that applies even to humans. If you read a lot of product labels with the fortified with this and that, you'd think everyone who eats many processed foods would be ODing on vitamins. What they don't tell you is that all this great stuff they add to the food to make it more appealing isn't bioavailable. Most usable vitamin D comes from the sun. You're specifically looking for D3. You can use cod liver oil as a natural supplement, but I'd have to look up how much to use. The problem with using things like cod liver oil is that it's impossible to gauge how much of it they're actually getting.