New pullet layer acting oddly...

[chickfused]

So, the main chicken I wrote about is now laying 2 hard eggs, and then a rubber egg - which is a reversal of what she had been doing. However, the other two layers have never laid anything but shelless and soft eggs off the roost.

I really think something might be wrong/could be better, but I'm not sure what to do. I can't feed layer because of the boys, and they just aren't reliably eating oyster shells or their own shells when I try to feed them back.

I've been looking for some calcium supplement to put in the water, because the pullets use the drinker but the roos do not. It's a nipple drinker, so it can't be anything with particulate in it otherwise the water will leak out.

Any suggestions? Am I just not being patient enough? They are all 22 weeks old. I'm just worried, because I know soft eggs increase the chances of egg binding and blockages.

Thank you kind friends!

 

[rosemarythyme]

At 22 weeks I'd still count this as "working out the kinks" in the system, but
have you tried sprinkling some oyster shell on the ground, or mixed with scratch and then sprinkled on the ground? Something to try and get them to at least sample the oyster shell.

Not sure if there's a liquid calcium supplement of any sort...

 

[chickfused]

Thank you! They do occassionally eat a little oyster shell or crushed egg shell, but it's in no way reliable or in major quanitity. Maybe 1/4 teaspoon once or twice a week. I've sprinkled it on their food, scattered on the ground, tossed into some scratch and mealworms too. The only reliable way I can get calcium into them is with milk or cheese. They will go to town on both.

I really wonder if it's just that where they range is an absolutely bountiful land of food and opportunity from a chicken perspective. They run around scratching up bugs in the leaf litter in the forest, drinking from the stream, eating all the seeds they want from the pasture, and we won't talk about the atrocities they do to my garden...

I'll keep being patient, it's just that I've never read any stories from anyone about weeks and weeks of soft/shelless eggs before hard ones show up.

I wonder if I could put a piece of stocking into the drinker with a few calcium tablets in it to leach into the water...

 

[chickfused]

Well, eventually everyone got everything sorted out. And I get regular eggs now, er, regularly. They eat the oyster shell and the egg shells with gusto.