4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[sophia_chicken]

Hi there.

 

I have had my ex-batts for 3 days now, and they are all laying aready.... unfortunately, the eggs are almost all getting broken. The shells are hard and I suspect they are standing on them.

 

Any ideas what I can do to stop this? I am putting a nice soft bed of hay in the nest several times a day, but they like to play with this and it ends up all over the run instead.

 

Any help would be very much appreciated.

 

[Hen Watch]

Hi there.

Hi - congrats on the new ex-batt arrivals.

 

When my lot lay, I've sometimes seen them rolling the egg to one side of the nest box with their feet and then jumping out fo the box. Not sure why they sometimes do this. Silly question - but are you sure your egg shells are hard? I only say this as when I collect mine they all feel the same hardness shells but when I come to crack them ocassionally I get ones that my fingers go through easily as the shell is thinner than usual.

 

Hopefully they are not pecking and eating the eggs as this can be habit forming. If that's the case you will have to get out quickly to collect the eggs as soon as poss. Or if they are kicking the eggs out with the nest bedding, maybe try some other bedding (shredded paper or Auboise) and again, collect eggs promptly if you can.

 

If you suspect the egg shells are thin, make sure they have a pot of grit and bake some egg shells in the oven for 5 mins, crush them up and add them to the grit. Mixed poultry grit usually has soluable shell bits in it anyway.

 

The other measure, if you have a horse feed shop nearby, is to buy some limestone flour. I get a 3kg tub for £4. Just put in a teaspoon per grub full of food. The calcium will harden their shells a bit.