Was compost a bad idea?

[MEMama3]

Over the last week I've been letting the girls do "clean-up crew" in my veggie garden. They were spending a few hours free ranging every day before this, but now they're out there all day in the garden. I've been putting piles of compost in for them to knock down and they are having a great time.

So now the problem: I've only gotten 5 eggs in the last three days despite usually getting 9. I thought it was no big deal since several are molting. Today however I had one egg with big smears of blood (no obvious injuries on hen) and two eggs that only had partial shells. Are they overdoing it out there? Could the partially broken down compost be hurting them?

 

[write2caroline]

I don't think the compost is the problem. Sometimes eggs will have dots of blood. I think in commercial eggs they use lights to see if there are dark spots and those eggs are rejected. It doesn't change the taste of the eggs and If I am serving such an egg to my husband or daughter - they are a little more squeamish, I use a spatula and take out the dark bit.

Chickens and compost are great together. They keep it turned - find lots of fun bugs, eat green stuff. Poop in the compost adding their own special fertilizer. It is all good.

No, If the blood bothers you use a high powered flash light and see the offending dark spot you can scramble it and feed it back to the clucks - they will not mind at all.

Caroline

 

[MEMama3]

I don't think the compost is the problem.  Sometimes eggs will have dots of blood.  I think in commercial eggs they use lights to see if there are dark spots and those eggs are rejected.  It doesn't change the taste of the eggs and If I am serving such an egg to my husband or daughter - they are a little more squeamish, I use a spatula and take out the dark bit.

Chickens and compost are great together.  They keep it turned - find lots of fun bugs, eat green stuff.  Poop in the compost adding their own special fertilizer.  It is all good. 

No, If the blood bothers you use a high powered flash light and see the offending dark spot you can scramble it and feed it back to the clucks - they will not mind at all.

Caroline

thanks for your response. The blood in question was on the shell. Quite a bit of it. It wasn't a blood spot in the egg (BTW, I'm totally squeamish and I give those to the dog lol)

 

[write2caroline]

In that case: Some of my chickens do not always lay the smoothest of shells. Your chicken may have had an egg break internally and if the chicken isn't acting ill, may have passed it through. Some of my chickens have had hard shells - it is possible to cut and tear if the egg broke inside. You might have noticed her vent had dirt or something.

I have had chickens egg bound too and had a tough time laying a big egg. One girl took three days and when she finally laid the egg - she layed two eggs. Poor baby I really felt for her. That egg was enormous.

Caroline

 

[donrae]

I think it's just coincidence. Unless they're also laying somewhere else, while they're out. I've had times a nest box looked like someone slaughtered a bird there--blood splattered all over the walls, splashed over the edges--never found an injured or off bird. No one died, no one looked off. Kind of freaked me out, but what can you do? Just keep an eye out and it never continued to happen.