Elderly cat breathing difficulties when purring

[chickencam]

My girls are now all 2- 2.5 years old and the quality of their eggs has gone down. I now find them hard to poach if they are more than a day old and boiling them is also a problem because the shells seem to crack.

 

The shells are thinner but I have upped the amount of grit that they are having and this has helped but the eggs still crack when boiled or hard boiled, which is a shame because we like eggs this way and tend to eat a lot of hard boiled eggs with salad at this time of year. The whites are so much more runny.

 

Any tips on boiling them without cracking, I have tried pricking the rounded end and bringing them to the boil from cold rather than putting them straight into hot water? I don't keep the eggs in the fridge so they are room temperature.

[moochoo]

I've found this with my original girls who are about the same age.I've found they crack less if they're brought up to the boil from cold, i.e. put into cold water then boiled from the time the water boils (10 minutes for hard boiled).

I've tried everything to strengthen their shells but I think it's one of those things.

[Egluntyne]

I think this is probably one of the reasons why commercial egg layers are got rid of after a year or so.

[The Dogmother]

You're right - after a couple of years of laying like stink, their shell glands get knackered and the eggs are no longer as good as they used to be.

[chickencam]

Never mind we will just have to eat the eggs in other ways. I wouldn't like to lay an egg every day

 

We are looking at getting some youngsters anyway so that we get some eggs over the winter. Any excuse to increase the flock