Texas here. With 5 EE and 10 PR. Had my first two eggs this afternoon. One was small but good. The other was very thin and was broken . I finally decided to join now that my chickens are laying! Excited to hear everyone's stories and learn!!
Welcome to BYC! Congrats on getting your 1st eggs. With getting a thin shelled egg, have you provided a bowl of crushed oyster shell for your birds to eat whenever they want? Upping the calcium level like that will help make the eggshells harder. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Nice to have you join us!
Welcome to BYC! Please make yourself at home and we are here to help. X2 on NorthFLChick. But it's also very normal for a pullet's first eggs to be thin, off shape and small.
Thank you so much!! Glad to hear that it could be "normal" . After I drop my 4 year old off at preschool in the morning I will hit up the feed store for oyster shells! Is there any concern with too much calcium later?
Welcome to BYC. Glad you decided to join our flock. Congratulations! It's always so exciting getting that first egg. What part of Texas are you from? My wife and I were both raised in the great state of Texas. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. We are here to help in any way we can. Good luck in getting many more eggs.
Hens will only take the extra oyster shell IF they need more calcium. Are you giving them a good layer feed?
Thanks for responses. In a response about feed, we were still giving them starter grain. Honestly didn't think they would start laying till spring due to weather. We purchased them in august from Meyer Hatchery. So I'm guessing I need to pick up grain today too?? I know, I know, stupid newbie questions!! I'm very familiar with livestock but chickens is another bird. But hey, we did have one with a broken leg and all is well )) In regards to where We live , west of FtWorth and yourself?
Hello and Welcome To BYC! X2, it is not unusual to get odd eggs when pullets start laying as they get in gear. You can just have oyster shell on the side all the time and they will eat what they need which ever food you feed. Some people like to feed Layer which is a complete food for laying hens but shouldn't be fed to birds under 18 weeks old or so, other people feed an All-Ages/ Flock Raiser type food since it is easier if you will be adding more birds or have birds of multiple ages. If you are going to go with Layer just pick up a bag of that also and mix it with the Starter you have left over then go to straight Layer next time. Scratch (not sure what you mean by grain) is a treat, it shouldn't be more than about 10% of their diet.