2009 Omlet cube and run for sale

[Busybird]

I got my three girls from Omlet at POL and they have provided us with an egg each almost every day from a month after we got them

 

However, for the past few months, one of the eggs has been much bigger and softer shelled than the other two. Since we returned from holiday last week this big egg has not been laid although we have had a few softies.

 

All the girls look healthy and spend the day doing chickeny things so I was wondering if one of the girls has just reached the end of her laying life. Am I right in thinking that hybrids lay regularly but for a shorter lifetime?

 

As the girls will not yet be 2 years old this seems a bit young to me - I had hoped to get this summer at full production and then expected a slowdown next winter.

 

I add limestone flour to their pellets, cod liver oil to their treats, grit is available in the run and they free range every day when I am home. Should I be doing anything else or do you think it is just an age thing?

[Jane and Martin]

Have you checked they are not laying somewhere else. One of mine had acouple of sneaky places she used to lay when she didn't feel like using the Eglu. I have one who is 4 yrs old and she stopped laying about 4 months ago.

[Egluntyne]

Have you wormed them?

[Busybird]

I have had a quick look around the garden and haven't come across any eggs. The girls have always been very good about 'going home' to lay. There have been a couple of eggs in the run and a couple on the roosting bars in the last year but none further afield. I suspect those were not in the nesting box because they all wanted to lay at once

 

I worm them every four months - next due in May. I can see that this problem could cause no eggs but would it explain the softies?

 

Do you think that it is ill health rather than age?

[Boybeck]

One of mine stopped laying and a dose of Verm-x sorted it out. I hadn't wormed them.

[meezers]

You could be describing one of mine ( haven't worked out if it's Elsie or Bluebelle yet, but suspect Bluebelle ). I've had my chooks 1 yr, 1 month and Bluebelle has been a regular layer - 6 eggs a week, they were always the biggest. As far as I know , I haven't had an egg off Bluebelle for almost 3 months now, the occasional softie that is eaten before I get there may be hers, but nothing else. My chooks are regularly wormed with flubenvet, have the supplements you mention, are healthy and all the others are laying well.I'm going to try feeding Bluebelle and Elsie (incase it is her ) a little extra limestone flour individually, but if that doesn't do the trick, I'll just put it down to the chook laying her 'allotted' amount of eggs.