YOLKS ARE BREAKING=(

[SqueakyRoseShalom]

My flock has been laying for almost one year now, and just the past month my yolks have been breaking almost every morning when I make my fried eggs. I can point out three specific things that I have been doing differently since this started happening, although I admit that I can't imagine that any one of these things would do this, but I guess it has to be something!

1. I started feeding my girls cracked corn. I feed them less than a dry quart per day (about 2 cups), and I have 10 chickens.
2. I started giving them freeze-dried meal worms, a couple of handfuls.
3. I started letting them free range for a longer period of time, 2-4 hours, every day. I see them catching bugs and worms and frogs regularly.

So if I had to guess something, am I giving them too much corn? Thanks for any ideas!

 

[Maggie C]

That is a fair amount of corn. Personally, I don't give mine cracked/dried corn at all. Once in a while they get an ear of fresh corn or some canned corn - leftover. I do not include corn in the scratch mixture that I make for them. That is just my preference since corn is a starch and doesn't contribute anything to their diet except calories. Not sure how/if the corn would contribute to broken yolks though. Sometimes I have to whack an egg the second time to break it (yeah, plenty of calcium) and will wind up with a broken yolk.