Poor Genetics and Problems

[NoSkiveez]

I have a cuckoo marans hen that is 6 months old. She went egg bound for her first egg. She passed the egg. The 2nd egg was beautiful. The third was a soft crushed up looking egg. I got her as a chick from a somewhat local private breeder. I'm wondering how much genetics could play into this problem and if she comes thru this problem (again) and successfullly breeds/lays. Would her offspring have this issue? She hasn't been with a rooster as of yet. Would it be most advisable to exclude her from my breeding program? And if I exclude her, should I also exclude a rooster that came from the same source? I have another unrelated rooster, so its not going to pose a problem to exclude those two. She was my only cuckoo marans hen so I would have to find another source to replace her.

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
Just a question. Why would laying a soft shelled egg be genetic, You do not say if you give Oyster shell free choice to harden the shell. Sounds like to me you have more of a problem with the feed mixture. Don

 

[rtroxel]

I usually have free choice oyster shell for my birds, but there are often one or two hens that seem to tend to lay "bad" eggs. Sometimes they lay thin-shelled or soft eggs, sometimes they lay long eggs, and sometime wrinkled eggs. All of those things can be genetic and they also could be from diet/calcium. In fact, I read one time that if you wanted to select for better egg shape, all you had to do was not set the poorly shaped eggs because they mostly come from the same hens and my experience is that the same hens tend to lay weak shelled eggs, too. Even when there is plenty of oyster shell...But, always try oyster shell first!

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
Yes, I agree with what you are saying, we can eliminate inferior eggs by not hatching them, now there are some poultry disease's that cause uneven, rough and poor quality eggs. Don

 

[NoSkiveez]

Ive read online that hens that get egg bound could be a result of a poorly bred bird but does not go into detail any further on the subject of poorly bred birds and the issues involving egg binding as to what aspect of poor breeding would cause this. I figured someone here would know the answers.

Here is one of the links that state it could be a genetic issue. There are several links that all have this same info.

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-treat-egg-binding-in-chickens.html

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=15+1829&aid=3060

She has had oyster shell available and ground up egg shell as well. Im not convinced it would be a feed related problem as she is the only one this has happened with. I would imagine that if it was a feed related problem that I would see shell problems in atleast one other bird given the number of females laying that I have. As of today I have started putting calcium in her water. She has no worm infestations either. They were all wormed prior to the onset of this issue.

I never saw the eggs she came from as they had already been disposed of days before I picked her up as a chick. I also purchased several other chicks at the same time I got her and rehomed them as they had no barring and thought it was odd. Later talking to the person I got them from she mentioned that she has had some come out that didnt bar and I wasnt sure if there could be a factor I might not know about that could play a role in the issues Im having with her.

 

[snowbird]

From what I hear from you I believe this is a clean legged Cockoo Marans and that would be most likely why the barring is not very good if any at all. How many female do you have in this group ? Don

 

[NoSkiveez]

Yes, clean legged cuckoo. I originally purchased about 10 of them. One was a bit older (this hen) and had already started to show the barring pattern, the rest had not. She was the oldest of the group. One other barred and is a rooster. The rest I was pretty sure were not marans at all and that I had gotten a bunch of chicks that were a different breed altogether until she mentioned that she was having problems with her cuckoos barring, then I wasnt so sure anymore.

 

[NoSkiveez]

I only have one female.

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
The cuckoo in the USA if clean leg are usually Hatchery fowl and are not very good colored. The french feathered leg Cuckoo are marked real nice mostly. Don

 

[NoSkiveez]

I do have marans that came from another source that are not hatchery stock and I doubt that I will see issues involving quality with them. Im very happy with the other birds. The rooster that came with this hen is a poor quality in looks and structure and I didnt want to use him. The rooster than I have that is unrelated to these two is so much nicer. I really wanted to pair her with him but dont want to risk passing on some sort of issue and have other people have to deal with something like egg binding.

ETA: Im sure in her background (probably not far back either) that there are hatchery chickens in there.