Why did my chicken lay this?

[collingwood]

Hi I have a chicken that looks really healthy and it eats really nutritious food such as wheat pellets left over cereals with lots of milk and she gets vegetables lots of grass and water and lots of worms and insects and yet she still laid this egg!

 

[BantamLover21]

That looks like a softshelled egg, and is nothing to worry about. Softshelled eggs can occur for many reasons, including simple flukes in a hen's oviduct, stress, or a calcium deficiency. Since your hen seems healthy otherwise and is eating a good diet, I suspect that the egg is just a random occurrence.

 

[collingwood]

OK but I found another one that looked exactly the same from a different chicken so I must be doing something wrong!

 

[aart]

How old are the chickens and how long have they been laying?

Are they getting a balanced chicken chow of some sort?
The right amounts of vitamins and minerals are important.

Are you supplying calcium in some form?

I just read something about alot of wheat is not good.

 

[collingwood]

They are quite old but I don't know exactly but they get calcium in milk and they don't get much wheat and their food has added vitamins and minerals!

 

[aart]

Not sure the calcium in milk or the vitamins you are using will cut it....you'd have to do some extensive research to see if what you are feeding measures up to a typical chicken formulation.....but basic nutrition is the place I'd start.

Why don't you know how old they are.....are they new to you?

 

[collingwood]

When I was younger I didn't pay much attention to them because I'm only twelve so I only just two years ago decieded to look after them! (my parents were'nt doing a good job)

 

[aart]

Ahhh, I see. So they are at least 2 years old maybe 3, 4, 5?.....they don't lay well forever and the older they get the more important good nutrition can be.
Long term poor nutrition can cause them to have more problems laying as they get older.

Here's the thing on wheat that I read:
"Diets high in wheat and fish meal are known to cause immuno- deficiency problems resulting in enteritis."
It was in this post in a thread about GMO feed.

Learn to use the advanced search here at BYC to learn more about chickens, the advanced search will give you better results but you'll still have to read thru alot of material and use patience and good slow judgement to find reasonable conclusions.......here's sample:
advanced search>titles only>wheat

 

[collingwood]

I'll give them less wheat in future!

 

[collingwood]

Ingredients: Cereal grains and their by products, lugumes and their by products, protein meals (animal and vegetable), fats and oils(animal and vegetable),minerals,vitamins.


is this healthy?