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

[emmamakeup]

Hi everyone

 

Hermione's been laying for nearly a week and the other two are now starting to lay - i think. Today I found two very soft eggs in the droppings tray. At first I found it quite bizarre that two an egg could fit between the bars but when I picked it up it felt like a water bomb - only thing I can compare it with. Later on I found another. I've heard about these soft eggs but is it just the chickens' systems getting used to laying? Is there a reason for this?

[Egluntyne]

You are right....it is just their systems getting used to laying.

 

Cut back on treats a bit so that they eat up their pellets and they should be fine quite soon.

[emmamakeup]

Ta - I do give them treats each day so will start being a tough mama and stop giving into the children They've been free ranging quite a bit recently and have been out of the run eating plenty of grass and grubs - not a good thing? Today was the first day that they were in the whole day until after tea.

[Saronne]

Are cabbages and greens 'treats?' I thought they were good for hens and helped make orange yolks.

 

 

Saronne x

[emmamakeup]

Good question - I tend to keep my girls in their run for the first part of the morning so they fill up on their pellets then let them free range from anything like 2-4 hours at a time during which they go mad at eating grass. They seem ultra happy to me so will stick to the routine I have if possible as it seems to work for them and they are producing lovely eggs so for me - pellets to fill up on then the greens/treats.

[WarrensWorld]

We feed our chooks their egg shells. Cook them in the middle of the oven gas mk 5 for 20-25 minutes, or put them in the bottom of the oven if you're baking or doing a roast. Then crush them up fairly finely (we use a mortar and pestle). Then just sprinkle some in with the mash. Never had a soft egg, and our chooks shells are a lot stronger and thicker than our neighbours egg shells.

Not saying there's anything missing from the mash. Just that adding the crushed shells sure makes them tougher.

[emmamakeup]

Yeah - forgot about using the egg shells. I'd heard about it on here and completely forgot about that - ta for that

 

I've got some grit left from what we got when we bought the eglu so will use up that first but will definitely start baking the egg shells. At least we know it will be good for them given they produced it in the first place

 

If you had an egg with a soft part to the top of the shell would you still eat it? The remainder of it is hard, like a normal egg.