- Oct 27, 2012
- 6
- 0
- 7
My pullet, Mica, has been on layer feed since she was "very young", said the breeder. Mica is now 6 months and 3 1/2 weeks old and hasn't started laying. She is a Barred Rock/Americauna (50/50%). She had been free-ranged most of the day and had free access to duck food, layer crumble, and chick starter until I got her. I got her when she was a little over 2 months old. Since I got her, she has had layer pellets, scratch, and lots of balanced people food protein (egg, meat, beans, milk/dairy, veggies and fruits, bread and grain) and insects and plants they forage in their pen, especially grasshoppers. Now she is on layer pellets, some veggies, grasshoppers and other run catches or forage, but I’ve cut out the rest of the people food and the scratch. I haven’t been abl3 to let her out of the run for some time though because of predators, but she still forages in a 30’ x 30’ pen.
She seems healthy, but I worry that she wasn’t on grower but rather on layer pellets (are whatever) when she was a pullet, and I wonder if that is why she hasn’t started laying yet. If she had too much Calcium in her diet, will her kidneys be damaged later? Why isn’t she laying?
I don’t know if this is related, but her pen mate hen, Piquante, who had been laying regularly about 5 eggs a week with no problems, started laying shellless eggs for about a week. Don’t know the cause but suspected a bound egg or a crop blockage. Never felt a blocked egg, but I’m new to this and don’t really know how to tell. Also, I thought her crop was big one morning, but I’m not sure how to tell. She is fine now, no more runny egg mess, and she is pooping again normally, but still no eggs. She is also molting, I think.
If this hen had two little calcium, which I doubt (she also has access to oyster shell) that might have accounted for the shell-less eggs, but I don’t think she was CA deficient. She was also getting some milk and shell. If she was CA deficient, then the pullet also would not be overly dosed with CA.
I don’t know if these two problems with the two birds are related to each other or are related to diet, past and present. Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks.
She seems healthy, but I worry that she wasn’t on grower but rather on layer pellets (are whatever) when she was a pullet, and I wonder if that is why she hasn’t started laying yet. If she had too much Calcium in her diet, will her kidneys be damaged later? Why isn’t she laying?
I don’t know if this is related, but her pen mate hen, Piquante, who had been laying regularly about 5 eggs a week with no problems, started laying shellless eggs for about a week. Don’t know the cause but suspected a bound egg or a crop blockage. Never felt a blocked egg, but I’m new to this and don’t really know how to tell. Also, I thought her crop was big one morning, but I’m not sure how to tell. She is fine now, no more runny egg mess, and she is pooping again normally, but still no eggs. She is also molting, I think.
If this hen had two little calcium, which I doubt (she also has access to oyster shell) that might have accounted for the shell-less eggs, but I don’t think she was CA deficient. She was also getting some milk and shell. If she was CA deficient, then the pullet also would not be overly dosed with CA.
I don’t know if these two problems with the two birds are related to each other or are related to diet, past and present. Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks.