Virginia

[HaplessRunner]

I have a question-- I posted in the egg-laying thread, but I'm hoping someone here may know:

Two of my young pullets just started laying last week (~23 weeks). One of them, the barred rock I think, has had one normal egg, and two that are just liquid-- no sign of shell anywhere. Just yolk, soaked into the nest box. Other than that, she seems perfectly fine. But it's not fun to clean up, and I hope she's okay.

Any ideas? They are on an organic, soy free layer feed (have been for the past month) and they usually get about an hour or two per day of free range. A couple of days ago, I also put some oyster shells in their run, so they could have it free choice.

Any advice appreciated.

Do you have other hens in with her? Chances are that you have an egg eater or more in your flock. That is usually the source of the egg gunk that you find in a nest box. And yes, they eat the shells too. I have three hens right now that are driving me crazy with their attacks on eggs. Unfortunately, they are going after lighter colored eggs, e.g., ameraucana and SFH eggs.

 

[2lilchkns]

Do you have other hens in with her?  Chances are that you have an egg eater or more in your flock.  That is usually the source of the egg gunk that you find in a nest box.  And yes, they eat the shells too.  I have three hens right now that are driving me crazy with their attacks on eggs.  Unfortunately, they are going after lighter colored eggs, e.g., ameraucana and SFH eggs.   

Gosh, I hope not, didn't think of that. I'll keep an eye on them.

 

[pysankigirl]

seems like you are doing the right thing. wait for the oyster shells to get into their system. and be careful with her (don't drop her or do anything that might rupture her interior fragile eggs)

 

[2lilchkns]

Three eggs today-- all with shells! So our barred rock must have just had a little glitch with a course of her first eggs. I'm so excited I'm going to post a picture

You can't tell from the photo, but the middle egg is light blue-- our very first from one of our Easter eggers. The other two are from our white and barred rocks. Go chickens!!

 

[2lilchkns]

[quote name="2lilchkns" url="/t/80/virginia/4530#post! So our barred rock must have just had a little glitch with a course of her first eggs.

Darn auto correct -- I meant "couple" of her first eggs.

 

[2lilchkns]

Posted too soon-- we actually got four eggs today (one was in the run). Woo hoo!

 

[Animals970]

Posted too soon-- we actually got four eggs today (one was in the run). Woo hoo!

Happens to me all the time!!

 

[ki4got]

Three eggs today-- all with shells! So our barred rock must have just had a little glitch with a course of her first eggs. I'm so excited I'm going to post a picture
You can't tell from the photo, but the middle egg is light blue-- our very first from one of our Easter eggers. The other two are from our white and barred rocks. Go chickens!!

one of my sfh girls laid 2 eggs over the last few days that had thin shells, but I think it's possibly because they don't care for the oyster shell. I put some dried crushed egg shells in there and they went to town.

 

[2lilchkns]

one of my sfh girls laid 2 eggs over the last few days that had thin shells, but I think it's possibly because they don't care for the oyster shell. I put some dried crushed egg shells in there and they went to town.

 

[2lilchkns]

Funny, my chickens are the same way. As far as I could tell, they just scattered the oyster shell around without eating it, but they loved some dried and crushed egg shell I threw in.