shell less egg

[snowflake]

one of my orpington hens is laying shell less eggs I'm not sure she has laid both of them but I have seen 2 in the last 2 weeks and this morning she had egg yolk on her bum las week one of my hens laid a super large egg,not sure if it was her . they are free rang but I kept them confined to chick tractor for a few days as to many roosters escaped and I was running later and did,t have time to catch them. I have 10 roosters and 11 hens at least 8 or 9 rooster are going to the freezer soon how many to keep is another question. can the harassment of too many rooster keep my hens from laying? I have Sussix, Orpington, Brahmas, and Aroucana's what do you think 1 or 2 roosters?

 

[faykokoWV]

one of my orpington hens is laying shell less eggs I'm not sure she has laid both of them but I have seen 2 in the last 2 weeks and this morning she had egg yolk on her bum las week one of my hens laid a super large egg,not sure if it was her . they are free rang but I kept them confined to chick tractor for a few days as to many roosters escaped and I was running

What are you feeding them? you may want to offer some oystershell or greens for increased calcium. do a search on here for leather egg. Have they just started laying recently? sometimes it takes them a while to get it right.​

 

[LynneP]

Yes, that's the key question, and I will add that your poor hens are exposed to too many roosters- one is enough for them. That's far too much stress on those poor hens.

 

[Judy]

All you ever wanted to know about egg problems:

http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/library/lvstk2/ep127.pdf

 

[faykokoWV]

great link, bookmarking now

 

[snowflake]

sorry I meant to tell you, my chicks are free range ,I feed scratch grain they don't eat the the layer mash. they are 7 months old and have been laying for a couple months

 

[annek]

Scratch grain is a treat, it is not food to eat constantly. Your chickens are not eating enough calcium probably. You need to feed them layer food primarily, they are like kids they will eat all candy if you let them. I feed mine the layer crumbles and they love it. I give them a handful of scratch every few days, free feed the oyster shells, and they free range.

 

[snowflake]

THANK YOU ALL !!!!!
the roosters are set to go a week from monday we found a nice Amish family not to far that will do them for me and she needs a rooster so I told her she could have her pick. I do crush the egg shells and feed them to the hens and most of my hens lay very hard shells but I will switch back to the layer feed I had Dumor from TSC . Thanks again for all you help ! Yesterday I got a good egg from each hen.

 

[Nif]

I don't know, it might just be coincidence but I have a buff orpington who lays shell-less eggs too. Everyone else lays great eggs, once in a while the orpington will lay a nice shell. could it be a breed thing??