We have had a chicken laying really weird eggs lately. They went from fine to little to no shelled eggs in about a week. Doing some sleuthing trying to figure out which hen it is, we've come to the conclusion it's WB or white back our low ranking hen in the peck order.
WB took to laying her weird eggs in all sorts of places, the ramp up to the coop, in the grass run, or near the nest box but not inside it. Then I would have to get the cat litter scooper (what I use to clean the coop with) and lift the weird thing away so the other girls won't eat or trample it.
She seems has healthy as she's ever been, so I was at a loss to figure out why the soft eggs? Doing some poking around on Backyard Chickens forum page, I found that hens can lay weird eggs for a number of reasons. Mostly that she has some sort of illness, the list of afflictions was scary! However she is just fine, no coughing, drooping, or lack of appetite. But I did find that if a chicken suffers a fright it can cause her egg production to be really strange i.e. weird eggs, no eggs etc..
I had to think back to about 2 weeks now, WB got caught by the sprinklers that water the grass in the grass run. She was stuck next to the fence for 6 minutes while the sprinklers got the lawn. Our fence has about a 1 foot gap away from the grass that isn't watered, so she was never getting soaked, just unable to move much unless she wanted to get wet (which chickens HATE). That is the only thing I can come up with that would have frightened her into stupefaction. We nicknamed this chicken "fraidy" as in afraid of everything, so I am sure this has to be what startled her.
In order to remedy the situation the troops at Backyard Chickens advised to have more oyster shell on hand, and supplement with yogurt and a leafy green, like spinage. So I've done that for about 5 days now and the shells are getting more solid with each day. Yesterday she actually laid her egg in the nest box, I am sure feeling it was adequate for the box now. It was still a bit papery so we didn't eat it, but today her egg should be much better.
Any ideas would be appreciated. I'll keep you posted on the ongoing chicken saga.
My sister had chickens when we were growing up. The eggs started looking like giant moldy turtle eggs. Found out that we had to feed them oyster shells. I'm not sure what the cost is. We bought it from the feed mill. I would ask a farm vet the ratio of oyster shells to chicken feed. Good luck!!
ReplyDeleteI never kept chickens although it seems like fun. So all I can say is, "Yikes!"
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