Yolks are fragile and break easily

[healthnut]

I have Jersey Giants, and my hens are laying really well. They're about 10 months-1year old. The shells are average hardness, but the yolks are so fragile that they break no matter how carefully I try to fry an egg. Any suggestions? They get oyster shell, and organic layer pellets, plus once a week they go out to the yard to free-range.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Threonine - critical amino acid for membrane formation. Not listed on guaranteed nutritional analysis (or at least, not required to be listed). Look for feeds high in Fish meal, corn gluten meal, soy meal, or soybeans.

As a temporary thing, go get a big thing (5 oz) of nutritional yeast from Wallyworld, cost you about $5. Mix with 5# of feed. Feed till done. Evaluate for changes in height and stability of the yolk. If you have a good grocery, or organic is very important to you, look for Anthony's Brewer's Yeast Powder - its a little cheaper per ounce, but a larger bag.

If that works, you've identified your problem, change feeds to a higher protein option and be sure to provide plenty of free choice oyster shell. Changing to higher protein feed will be cheaper than trying to uniformly add enough yeast each batch.

 

[Sally PB]

I had this issue last spring/summer. Hubby likes his eggs over easy, and the yolks broke every time.

I'm not sure when I switched to Kalmbach Flock Maker 20%, and I'm not sure when the problem went away. I don't know if that is what solved the problem, or if my girls just "outgrew" it.

Saving this information in case I have it with birds in the future.

 

[Holdthechicken]

Threonine - critical amino acid for membrane formation. Not listed on guaranteed nutritional analysis (or at least, not required to be listed). Look for feeds high in Fish meal, corn gluten meal, soy meal, or soybeans.

As a temporary thing, go get a big thing (5 oz) of nutritional yeast from Wallyworld, cost you about $5. Mix with 5# of feed. Feed till done. Evaluate for changes in height and stability of the yolk. If you have a good grocery, or organic is very important to you, look for Anthony's Brewer's Yeast Powder - its a little cheaper per ounce, but a larger bag.

If that works, you've identified your problem, change feeds to a higher protein option and be sure to provide plenty of free choice oyster shell. Changing to higher protein feed will be cheaper than trying to uniformly add enough yeast each batch.

Really informative, thanks even though I’m not OP!

 

[healthnut]

Threonine - critical amino acid for membrane formation. Not listed on guaranteed nutritional analysis (or at least, not required to be listed). Look for feeds high in Fish meal, corn gluten meal, soy meal, or soybeans.

As a temporary thing, go get a big thing (5 oz) of nutritional yeast from Wallyworld, cost you about $5. Mix with 5# of feed. Feed till done. Evaluate for changes in height and stability of the yolk. If you have a good grocery, or organic is very important to you, look for Anthony's Brewer's Yeast Powder - its a little cheaper per ounce, but a larger bag.

If that works, you've identified your problem, change feeds to a higher protein option and be sure to provide plenty of free choice oyster shell. Changing to higher protein feed will be cheaper than trying to uniformly add enough yeast each batch.

Great info, I'll give the yeast a try. I'm not sure I can find a higher protein feed, I think the layer pellets are about 17%, but I'll check.