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

[Raina]

Hi all,

 

Lady Lay laid her 2 first eggs on May 4th

 

well since then she has been laying eggs every other day and the shells are really thick on them.

 

Is this normal?

 

Thanks,

 

Raina

[Budgies]

Hi Raina

 

Laying every other day and producing eggs with good strong shells sounds ideal to me!

 

Are you worried about the thickness of the shells, or the irregularity/regularity of the egg laying?

[Raina]

I'm just a bit worried about how thick the shells are, We have to hit them quite hard to crack them

 

She did lay an egg every day for 3 days and the shells on those were really thick,i did drop one and all that it had was a tiny crack on it

[wiblick]

From what I've read you've got perfect eggs! The supermarket ones are quite thin shelled from being mass produced (kinda). Eggs from your chicks are produced more naturally and could stand up to the rigours of 21 days incubating as nature intended.

[Budgies]

It does sound to me like you've got a healthy chook providing you with good strong eggs!

 

Are you giving them additional calcium to that contained in their pellets or meal? In what form and how much?

[Raina]

We are feeding them Layers Pellets, then give them a handful of Super Mixed corn (from Flyte so fancy) after they eat their Pellets in the morning

 

The super mixed corn has Oyster Shell and grit mixed with it

 

and they have a grit tub filled with crushed up egg shell (cooked for 10 mins @ 180) and some limestone flour (i give that to my tortoises too) that they can have when needed but i've never seen them take any of that

[Budgies]

It all sounds fine to me Raina, they're getting everything they need to lay you nice healthy eggs by the sounds of things!

[Redwing]

I was surprised at how thick the shells were when I first had my hens. I think it seems unusual compared to what we are used to but is in fact the way eggs are supposed to be!