Single hen

[Alex_A]

We got our Eglu on Tuesday, our first egg on Thursday and our first softies today. I think our is responsible for all of them. She laid a reasonable sized pale one first, then smaller browner ones on Friday and Saturday, and then two brown paper softies today. The first one broke in the litter tray (and had a perfect yolk), the second was like a soft rubber ball (and just dropped out while she was having her first free range this afternoon. I gave them some potato and houmous mash on Thursday afternoon (with some ground up egg shell sprinkled in), which they scoffed down in no time, and they had a corn cob on Friday (and some leftovers yesterday) but they had the layers pellets every day (and nothing else until the afternoon). Yesterday we left them with a bowl of mashed pellet porridge with some garlic powder and ground egg shell, and most of it was eaten. Is it likely that the soft eggs are a result of too many treats and not enough pellets on Thursday and Friday, or is it just early laying problems? Our other hen is a , and her comb seems to be too pale (and she's smaller) for her to have started laying yet, so I think both are from the (I'm sure the 2nd one is, as I saw her lay it). I have been putting grit out for them as well, but I was going to try to get some limestone flour as well. Any advice more than welcome!

[Scottie]

Possibly just all the excitement of the move! Perhaps you should just stick to layers mash/pellets until they're a bit more settled.

 

Good luck!

 

Sheila

[Egluntyne]

There are often a few blips in the early days of egg laying. It should settle down.

 

I would reduce their treats for a day or two and just give them pellets and one tiny treat in the afternoon.

[Alex_A]

Thanks, I'll leave them on just the pellets for a day or two, then reintroduce treats slowly. Out of interest, how much is a reasonable level of treats when all is going well? Being new to this, it's hard to know how much is sensible. For example, raisins - should I be thinking in terms of 2 or 3 raisins each, 10 each or more (if that was their only treat of the day?) It might help me not to overfeed them other treats!