Softshell Egg?

[BYC-user-174785]

In the past I was feeding dried egg shells too, but not anymore. If you used shells of cooked eggs it is maybe ok, but I don’t what to take the risk to bring any salmonella or other thinks into my aviaries with the egg shells. At any case I recommend to crack the shells into small pieces before feeding that it is not looking like an egg. Otherwise it could be a risk that you train your peafowl to eat eggs.
Nowadays I us a special poultry mineral and grit with crashed mussel shells and it works prefect. I can follow up that when the hens are laying they eat a lot of it.
To mineralize your hens starts already in the winter, the hens have to fill up their storage. When they are laying eggs they take a lot of the minerals out of the body which they have stored over the winter for the breeding season.
Soft shell eggs are not only problem of a lack of calcium. Weather and other things are having an influence too.

Regards

I will have to do that from now on. My birds are hardly touching the oyster grit...

 

[Pfauenfreund]

I will have to do that from now on. My birds are hardly touching the oyster grit...

It is normal, sometimes they don't touch it for weeks but, from one day to the other you can see they eat a lot of it. I have it allways in a small compartment in the barn and they take it when they need.

 

[leo7]

From my experience it has some to do with hot weather. When it is very hot and the air very dry Peacocks and Pheasants lay more eggs without the strong eggshell.
Give your peas a high dose Calcium and Vitamin D3 over some days.
Also crushed shells should always be in the breeding season to disposal.

 

[subhanalah]

From my experience it has some to do with hot weather. When it is very hot and the air very dry Peacocks and Pheasants lay more eggs without the strong eggshell.

Give your peas a high dose Calcium and Vitamin D3 over some days.

Also crushed shells should always be in the breeding season to disposal.

I've also read that a more acidic hen will not absorb calcium efficiently during the hot months of summer....or something to that effect. Do you use ACV in your water on a regular basis?

 

[leo7]

Sorry but what is ACV
You have to give the Calcium together with Vitamin D3 over the drinking water
When it is very bad by injection please ask a veterinarian

 

[frenchblackcopper]

ACV,Apple Cider Vinegar

 

[leo7]

Thanks
frenchblackcupper

no only with drinking water I use no ACV

 

[casportpony]

Sorry but what is ACV
You have to give the Calcium together with Vitamin D3 over the drinking water
When it is very bad by injection please ask a veterinarian

I the US there is no need to have a vet do it, you can buy injectable at a feedstore and you can give it orally. I give 200-300mg/kg along with an E capsule.

It looks like this:



I also use this:



-Kathy

 

[SunBaked]

I feed mine spinach a few times a week which has a nice amount of vitamin E. On their oatmeal day (twice a week, they love it) I mix in a few spoons of oyster shell and sometimes berries after I cook it. I leave some shell at all times in the pens. They get alfalfa a few times a week as well which is good in calcium and other vitamins including E.

I am not sure about the hot and dry weather causing soft shells. I live in SW AZ where it gets over 110 and is very very dry and have never had one. Of course this is only my 4th year doing this so I'm sure I will see one eventually. Maybe mine are just used to this weather, I think they were all hatched here.

 

[MinxFox]

I have gotten two eggs so far that are normal, good eggs. I know that Snow White is laying the soft eggs, but I am not sure if it is just her. I haven't gotten a lot of them to make me think there is more than just her laying them. Of the normal eggs they are shaped differently so I am not sure if they are from the same hen or two different ones, but the shell seems nice and hard.

All I can say is at least one hen is getting calcium and one is not getting enough. Snow White is the lowest ranking bird so I don't know if that has anything to do with it... I am feeding them egg shells and laying feed and also I am going to be getting some different kinds of calcium (oyster, cuttlefish, etc) from the pet store hopefully tonight.