The inevitable humidity question, day before lockdown, help please!

[aart]

What causes the soft egg?

Well, softies are not unusual with new layers, but I think this girl is a bit neurotic and thus stressed out...and/or she could be a 'lemon' with a wonky shell gland.
The clump of gunk appears to be shelling or membrane material.
There is a very thin layer of shell on the entire egg.
I assume the intact egg, found on coop floor about 9 last night, came from a different bird.

 

[WVduckchick]

No change whatsoever!! She jogs along behind everyone else peeping away! I don't know what to think. She has not grown at all since I took that original pic. She is literally half the size of the other chicks. I did actually see her stretch her neck out today so I know she can but she chooses to keep it tucked down and back so she looks all hunched up all the time! Kind of like she wants to look like she has a double chin .

Anyway, I am loving your nesting boxes. Do you build them yourself? If so, what are the dimensions, give or take? I am also loving your CCL hens. Congrats on the egg!! Love it. They look soooo good along side the BCM eggs in the carton. Very chic!

What causes the soft egg?

Gosh I’m not sure what to think about that chick. Fail to thrive? I’ve had some seramas that hung on a while, longer than typical, but still didn’t make it.

Thanks on the nest boxes! I did make them myself. First attempt at external boxes.

They are about 3’ tall, boxes are roughly 14w x 14d x 16h
I used 2x2’s to build a frame, plywood for the box bottoms and just Luann on the sides, plywood for the top. Paint was more to cover my ooopsies lol
I considered angling the top, but figured if they want to stand on it (and obviously they do!) I’m ok with that.

 

[WVduckchick]

Well, softies are not unusual with new layers, but I think this girl is a bit neurotic and thus stressed out...and/or she could be a 'lemon' with a wonky shell gland.
The clump of gunk appears to be shelling or membrane material.
There is a very thin layer of shell on the entire egg.
I assume the intact egg, found on coop floor about 9 last night, came from a different bird.
View attachment 1539087

I’ve only had one pullet, and it was a few years ago, that laid rubbery eggs. It only happened a couple times, and she eventually laid normal ones. So sorry, I’m not much help.

 

[WVduckchick]

One other thing about the boxes, I didn’t like the slick bottoms, i considered buying those mats that are available, but I spray-glued a piece of upholstery material to the wood, so they can’t move the shavings as easily. I noticed one BCM box already has a spot they pulled up, so I need to re-glue it, or do something different. Maybe rough lumber would be better. (One sheet of my plywood was already painted white.)

 

[aart]

I’ve only had one pullet, and it was a few years ago, that laid rubbery eggs. It only happened a couple times, and she eventually laid normal ones. So sorry, I’m not much help.

Only one that you found? Have had a few pullets lay a softie, usually first egg, often in conjunction with an intact egg in same day...most never do, that I know of, sometimes I only find a wet spot in nest, if they lay out in run I'd never know unless I found it pronto as they eat them up pretty fast. Have had older birds lay them too, one consistently-she was defective or diseased, had one lay several this year before finally stopping to molt. Not too worried about it.....tho I did spread OS and granite grit out with the scratch this morning.

So how did you miss with these screws, they look so close to crashing!
Pilot holes carefully placed? Nice frame work!
Did you buy those 2x2's or rip them yourself?

 

[WVduckchick]

Only one that you found? Have had a few pullets lay a softie, usually first egg, often in conjunction with an intact egg in same day...most never do, that I know of, sometimes I only find a wet spot in nest, if they lay out in run I'd never know unless I found it pronto as they eat them up pretty fast. Have had older birds lay them too, one consistently-she was defective or diseased, had one lay several this year before finally stopping to molt. Not too worried about it.....tho I did spread OS and granite grit out with the scratch this morning.

So how did you miss with these screws, they look so close to crashing!
Pilot holes carefully placed? Nice frame work!
Did you buy those 2x2's or rip them yourself?
View attachment 1539151

Touché yes, only one I found.

I bought the 2x2's. I had some leftover treated ones from my coop addition, so used them on the BCM box, and bought more for the CL box. But I bought treated and non-treated. The upright ones are treated, the horizontal ones are not, but my only point of doing that was the 4 legs touch the ground, so I thought the treated would be better. Probably didn't really matter. The non-treated ones are cheaper (and actually a tad larger)

For the CL box, I did cut everything on the table saw for better square cuts. The BCM box was almost all by hand-saw, and my "cube" didn't turn out very square
Its just for chickens, right? That was my theory, but it also makes things screwy and more difficult in the long run. So it was kinda practice.

I learned to pre-drill the 2x2's a long time ago, because they split so easy. The joint you pointed out is probably a bit angled for the screws to miss each other. I had more times of screwing into the head of another when I put the luann on.

Oh, the best thing I think I did was to put the plywood bottom for the nest box below the 2x2's, so the 2x2's became a little lip, and gave me something more to help hold the shavings in the box.

 

[oregonkat]

Do you find that your hens use the lower box as well as the upper? Thank you for posting the pics as you went along in the construction, that helps a lot!!

 

[WVduckchick]

Do you find that your hens use the lower box as well as the upper? Thank you for posting the pics as you went along in the construction, that helps a lot!!

I was curious which they would choose also. The first 3 BCM eggs were in the bottom one. I’ve since found an egg under their coop, one in the middle of the run, and um....I have 6 eggs.... Hmm. Maybe 4 were in the box or another was somewhere else. . But not the top box.
I’m wondering if the perch in front of the BCM top box is wide enough. I made the upper CL perch with a wider board.

The CL laid hers in the top box. She had been checking it out for a couple days.

So which breed lays more consistently? I’m surprised that I’ve only gotten 6 eggs in 13 days from the Marans, and I think 2 girls are laying.

 

[oregonkat]

I find, at the moment, that my BCM hens are laying pretty much daily. I get maybe 4 eggs a week from my CCL right now but she just had a mini molt so I'm sure that put the brakes on somewhat.

Other question about the boxes, are they secured to anything or just free standing?

 

[aart]

Have had only one of each but both CCL and Marans laid pretty consistently tho only 3-5 a week..both are now molting.
Got another CCL pullet egg, intact and 34g in the nest.
The older pullet BCMxCCL lays damn near every day 6-7 per week,
wish the rest would get in it going on!