Hi Everyone! Can anyone hazard a guess as to why one of my 5 wyandottes is laying a normal egg about every 5-6 days, a yolkless egg shell every so often, and yesterday a shellless yolk like she was just pooping out a normal poop?
The other 4 birds reliably give me 3-4 eggs per day. All 5 birds were raised together by someone else and came to me together.
I've finally narrowed it to the most omega bird due to location on the roost of the softshell yolkless thing I occas find. I see her in the nesting box but there's nothing in there when she leaves, which is what happened yesterday, then I get a TM from the man who took a picture of the yolk just dropped on the stoop out front.
I've researched this forum and the problem addressed seems to be calcium.
So does that mean just one bird is not getting enough calcium while the others are?
I free-feed a mix of Layena and Feather Fixer, plus a few handfuls of mealworms in the am, and a small handful of a mix of Chicken Crack, Garden Treat, Harvest Treat, and their regular feed tossed out over their favorite hill in the shade in the afternoon.
They free range every day from 7-7 if it's not wet-weather at 7000 feet in the Colorado Mountains. If it IS wet weather, they have an 8x10 covered dry run plus their sleeping coop they stay in.
They have access to a bowl of oyster shell they never touch in their coop run. Plus I'll throw out a handful of oyster shell in the mornings so that it's in among their mealworms but they just ignore it at the time. I DO see that it disappears throughout the day or wild birds eat it or chipmunks eat it, or it just gets ground into the dirt...
This hen that I suspect it is is the bottom-of-the-totem-pole bird. "Frost" (she got frostbite last winter on an 18-below-0 day) had no tail when she came to me and is now sporting mostly a tail with promise of big feathers popping out soon. We PeckNoMore'd her, Sharpie'd black her pink tail skin, and since 2/1, when she came to live here, has improved vastly in the tail feather area.
She's the one who gets chased away from the treats by the next up bottom-of-the-rung hen. She's the one with the smallest body and the most shy demeanor. So I just give her her treats separately behind a rock where no one sees she has anything or straight from my hand. Even the chicken kitchen trims I hand out separately to her. She's an extremely picky eater, wherein the others will eat anything or at least try it before not eating it. She'll look at everything first, cock her head, take a tiny taste maybe, then decide if she likes it or not.
She's active all day, they range all around the house together. They all dust bathe together in several different locations. She has a voracious appetite when it comes to the treats and the mealworms. I see her in the coop eating the normal feed throughout the day just like the others. She's perky, her eyes are clear, her poop chute feathers are no more urine-stained than anyone else's and I keep them all pretty clean in that area by cleaning them every few days by gently rolling the stained feathers in my fingers until the white powder falls off.
She has no parasites I can locate. She's well feathered elsewhere. Her eyes are bright, she's interactive, shows no sign of illness that I can detect.
Does she just have some genetic flaw that she can't get her eggs reliably fully formed?
Since last September, when she first came under my care, I've found maybe a dozen of those yolkless soft shells under the roosts. And we've gotten 5-egg days 6 times since 2/1. So I KNOW she's capable of making a complete egg!
Thanks everyone! I really appreciate your input.
Marcia in Colorado
Here's a photo of today's yolkless soft shell that was under her roost spot. It was all squished together, I spread it out. No yolk mess accompanied it.
The other 4 birds reliably give me 3-4 eggs per day. All 5 birds were raised together by someone else and came to me together.
I've finally narrowed it to the most omega bird due to location on the roost of the softshell yolkless thing I occas find. I see her in the nesting box but there's nothing in there when she leaves, which is what happened yesterday, then I get a TM from the man who took a picture of the yolk just dropped on the stoop out front.
I've researched this forum and the problem addressed seems to be calcium.
So does that mean just one bird is not getting enough calcium while the others are?
I free-feed a mix of Layena and Feather Fixer, plus a few handfuls of mealworms in the am, and a small handful of a mix of Chicken Crack, Garden Treat, Harvest Treat, and their regular feed tossed out over their favorite hill in the shade in the afternoon.
They free range every day from 7-7 if it's not wet-weather at 7000 feet in the Colorado Mountains. If it IS wet weather, they have an 8x10 covered dry run plus their sleeping coop they stay in.
They have access to a bowl of oyster shell they never touch in their coop run. Plus I'll throw out a handful of oyster shell in the mornings so that it's in among their mealworms but they just ignore it at the time. I DO see that it disappears throughout the day or wild birds eat it or chipmunks eat it, or it just gets ground into the dirt...
This hen that I suspect it is is the bottom-of-the-totem-pole bird. "Frost" (she got frostbite last winter on an 18-below-0 day) had no tail when she came to me and is now sporting mostly a tail with promise of big feathers popping out soon. We PeckNoMore'd her, Sharpie'd black her pink tail skin, and since 2/1, when she came to live here, has improved vastly in the tail feather area.
She's the one who gets chased away from the treats by the next up bottom-of-the-rung hen. She's the one with the smallest body and the most shy demeanor. So I just give her her treats separately behind a rock where no one sees she has anything or straight from my hand. Even the chicken kitchen trims I hand out separately to her. She's an extremely picky eater, wherein the others will eat anything or at least try it before not eating it. She'll look at everything first, cock her head, take a tiny taste maybe, then decide if she likes it or not.
She's active all day, they range all around the house together. They all dust bathe together in several different locations. She has a voracious appetite when it comes to the treats and the mealworms. I see her in the coop eating the normal feed throughout the day just like the others. She's perky, her eyes are clear, her poop chute feathers are no more urine-stained than anyone else's and I keep them all pretty clean in that area by cleaning them every few days by gently rolling the stained feathers in my fingers until the white powder falls off.
She has no parasites I can locate. She's well feathered elsewhere. Her eyes are bright, she's interactive, shows no sign of illness that I can detect.
Does she just have some genetic flaw that she can't get her eggs reliably fully formed?
Since last September, when she first came under my care, I've found maybe a dozen of those yolkless soft shells under the roosts. And we've gotten 5-egg days 6 times since 2/1. So I KNOW she's capable of making a complete egg!
Thanks everyone! I really appreciate your input.
Marcia in Colorado
Here's a photo of today's yolkless soft shell that was under her roost spot. It was all squished together, I spread it out. No yolk mess accompanied it.
