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

[Early Bird]

I found two soft eggs in the cube today. I would have been thrilled as they are the first I've seen, but they were soft, so just pleased they are finally getting to laying. These were both in the droppings tray (found them when I removed the trays for cleaning). My questions mainly are is it normal for the first eggs to be soft or should I be giving extra calcium? And will they get the idea of using the nesting box or should I try to encourage them in there in some way? I suspect Sam was the layer as she looks a lot more mature than the others and has been crouching a lot today. She also was heading for the nest box so I suspect there's another on the way.

 

All advice much appreciated

[Chook n Boo Mum]

One of mine (nearly 2 now) lays her softies in the pootray I think because she can't get into the nest box due to a whopping great Orpington in her way ...she's usually laid early, so I suspect that Drusilla or Cordelia is just in her way, & being lowest in the pecking order Snowdrop won't ask her politely to shift her feathery knickers elsewhere..I'm not overly concerned though, they are easier to clean up form the poo tray than the nesting box!!

 

As yours are very young, you could put a golf ball or fake egg in the nestbox to give them the idea of where to lay, they should settle into laying proper eggs within a few weeks as their laying tackle gets into gear. If they are still laying softies after a week orso, maybe some cod liver oil in their food would be a good idea...it helps their body use the calcium in the feed...I assume you have grit and/or oyster shell available for them to "snack on" as & when they want to?

 

Good luck & Sam get the hang of it today

 

Sha x

[Early Bird]

Thanks Wild Mum. I do have oyster shell for them, but I'm not sure whether I should mix it with their layers pellets or put it in a separate bowl (it's separate at the moment) and possibly I might need to provide more grit.

 

Sam was sitting in the nest box when I went out to see them a few minutes ago, but she came back out and hadn't done anything other than turf out a good chunk of bedding (I use shredded paper). She does seem to know that's where she's supposed to go though so I live in hopes that she just isn't ready to lay another one just yet. As you say, they are still very young so maybe it takes them a while to learn when the eggs will actually come. It's worth mentioning that Sam is the boss lady aside from being the biggest and looking more mature than the others. Their combs are all much smaller than hers although Ella's is nearly as big. The gingers both have tiny ones (Diamond's is almost non existent) but I assume they have naturally smaller ones?

[jomaxsmith]

It may be that she laid the egg in the nest box but pecked at it and tipped it into the poo tray. My Coral goes through spurts of soft eggs and they usually end up in the tray by virtue of one of the hens trying to pick it up to eat it somewhere quiet then dropping it or breaking it.

 

Hopefully she'll grow out of it!

 

Jo

[Chook n Boo Mum]

Maybe re the combs, have we seen piccies to admire these lovely girls? Different breed develop at different rates.....pure breeds are notorious for being developers and hybrids tend to "hit the deck running" starting earlier & finishing earlier ...but as with all things that is a generalisation which some chooks take as a personal challenge to disprove !! When they are ready they will start laying and until then, you have to be patient .......my patience it wearing thin waiting for my Pekin Blossom to start laying again after her 10 days or so of laying ....then about 4 days of growling broodiness ......and now nothing for 3 weeks

 

I just leave the grit in a separate cage cup in the run & they intermittently fling it all over the place or ignore it , my girls are lucky enough to freerange most of the day when I'm here, so they do pick up grit & stuff as they are scratching about. I know some people fling a handful of grit into the bedding/base of the run every so often so they get to scrabble about & entertain themselves for it that way.

 

Sha x

[Early Bird]

Both of them were quite a way from the nest box, but it could be possible. I shall be watching even more closely than usual now to see what they're up to Also, although both the soft shells were broken, both yolks were still there so at least they don't appear to have attempted to eat them.

 

Mine do come out to freerange whenever possible, but we have a very small yard which is paved so there's not much for them to do out there, especially now they've eaten anything resembling greenery. I also don't know how much natural grit they're picking up in this kind of environment. I will take your suggestion of throwing a handful into the run base, I'm sure they'll scratch it up in no time. They do amuse themselves by scrabbling about in their woodchip/bark run base though, I assume they're getting something out of it, and they love the cabbage I put in for them (much their favorite so far). The left over rice I gave them yesterday with a bit of mixed veg in it didn't touch the sides.. I think we might be having rice for dinner a bit more often now

 

I haven't posted any piccies yet, but that is only because I don't know how to upload them (total computer numpty I'm afraid) but I intend getting OH to do it for me very soon

[sjp]

I find that big red lays most of her softys away from the nest area unless she starts at bed time then she takes her self off to the nest box but I have found them under the perch from time to time big red has laid more than her fair share of softies i should add

as for getting them to lay in the nest box It took me 2 pot eggs,2 large flower pots one in each of they're faverite corners and 2 months to teach them to lay in the nest box

[Cats and Chickens]

Mine have just started laying this week too, and I have had one softie intact in the nesting box one broken softie outside the nesting box and one beautiful perfect egg under the perches. I wondered if I was being OTT trying to persuade them to lay in the nesting box which they sleep in and sleep on the perch. but if two months of perseverence works maybe I'll stick at it.

 

Its so hard to be patient

[Early Bird]

Oh I agree. It seems like the girls have been with us forever now, but we've only had them 3 and a half weeks. I've been so impatient for that first egg and I will be checking everywhere very carefully in the morning to see if Sam has obliged with anything else. She looked so sweet in the nesting box this afternoon and had a lovely soft expression, totally unlike her usual rather fierce look.

 

Having said which, there are so many fireworks going off tonight, it's upsetting all of the poor dears and will very likely put them off laying for life

[Porkypie]

I have a hen with a softie-egg tendancy (which she seems to be gradually growing out of). She occassionally lays these in the nestbox but mostly all over the place, mainly in the run! She always lays her proper eggs in the nest box. Just a perculiar thing with her softies as though they don't trigger the same nestbox-homing stimulus that the hard eggs do

[Early Bird]

Funny, someone else mentioned somewhere that softies are often laid outside the nestbox. It's as if they know that they're no good and just discard them anywhere with no regard, but lay the proper ones where they're supposed to. Time will tell whether that's the case with my girls.

[Early Bird]

A quick update here. Eldest DS saw Sam in the nestbox when he let them out this morning and when I went out about an hour later there it was. OUR FIRST PERFECT EGG! It weighed in at 70g and I am so proud of Sam the clever girl. She has been duly congratulated, praised and thanked for her gift (a special treat for her today I think ). Now let's hope the others get the message and soon follow suit

 

I hate to think what the neighbors thought about my shriek of YAY! and subsequent Eggdance, but then I'm sure they think I'm terminally weird anyway

[Space Chick]

Glad that Sam has laid a perfect egg

 

A small amount of cod liver oil and limestone flour added to their pellets can help boost calcium levels and prevent softies

[Early Bird]

Thanks Space Chick. I boiled the egg for lunch so we could all have a taste and it was delicious I shall try the limestone flour since they show no interest at all in the oyster shell I've given them.

[Purplemaniacs]

Congratulations on your first egg, a good size too.

 

I wonder if you will get another today

 

Chrissie

[Early Bird]

I did! 52g, laid around lunchtime. We assume it was Sam again

[Nogs]

Hi there Early Bird ,

 

I was interested in your chickens as they are around the same age as mine. We got them on the 20th Oct and they were about 19 weeks the driver thought, we haven't had any eggs yet but today there was a poo in the nesting box that seemed partly egg but no shell. I thought this must be a softie but from your description they are with a shell. The droppings tray had a few similar poos in too.

Would be grateful for any tips or is it just my impatience!

 

The 3 Gingernuts Rangers are from Omlet

 

1st egg 31.10.09 45g

[Early Bird]

Hi Nogs,

 

From what I've read on here, it seems like they do eggy poos when they're gearing up to lay. I had a few of those although they weren't all that 'eggy', just more yellowish. I gather laying one or two softies first is normal (and may be better for them since they are unused to expelling something that size) but I don't think it always happens. Of course, now that Sam has started I'm taking a peek into the nest box at every opportunity and am practically on my knees begging the other three girls to please, hurry up and get on with it.

 

Whereabouts in West London are you? You may not be all that far from me

[Nogs]

Hi me again,

I just realised I called you the wrong name... Sorry. Thanks for that it makes sense I suppose just worried I was doing something wrong as they seem to be eating all the veg and stuff but little of their proper food. Hope you are right as the conversations in our house seem to revolve around when they will lay. Like you I am becoming quite obsessed with watching them going anywhere near the nesting box! The black Pepperpot is now laying once a day but I got her from somewhere else. It's quite hard work sharing the collecting of 1 egg a day between three children!!

 

I am in Ealing so not really chicken country... Is that far from you?

 

Nogs

[Early Bird]

You didn't call me the wrong name as far as I can see Nogs, unless you meant the question for someone else of course

 

No worries if so, I'm always happy to chat to anyone about our lovely girls although I am far from being the expert the tag under my screen name seems to suggest and I'm pleased if my advice helped

 

Ealing is not all that far away. Most people seem to have no idea where Molesey is so I'll clarify by saying Hampton Court, everyone knows where that is and we live only a mile away from the palace

[Nogs]

Hi yes I did mean to reply to you!

the eggspert bit confused me not sure which is the name...

Yes we aren't that far apart then, although I suspect you live in a slightly more countrifed place than me!

Great to chat to a new person at the same stage as I don't know anyone locally with chickens and all my friends seem to have been completely shocked and not positively about the new additions to our family! Luckily my son is very pleased with them as they were his 8th birthday present. He was hoping for a dog... but he was still very pleased.

I found it very amusing watching him standing by the nesting box waiting for the chicken to finish laying her egg so he could have it for breakfast this morning, not very London if you get what I mean!

 

Nogs

 

Polly

Coop

Birdy

 

Metallica

Bolt

Queen Amadala!

[Early Bird]

All becomes clear The name is at the top in bold, eg: Early Bird, Nogs etc. Then there is the tag just under that like Chicken Eggspert (I'm not ) or Freshly Laid Egg like you have. Those change depending on how many posts you've made.

 

We do have quite a few green areas surrounding us, but our house is far from countrified I assure you It's a 3 storey townhouse with the standard postage stamp excuse for a garden, which in our case is completely paved (driveway and patio) so it's not the most chicken friendly environment although our girls seem perfectly happy out there.

 

I'm sorry to hear you've met with such a negative view about your new additions. All the people I know round here (other school mums) have been quite positive about me keeping chickens and some have said they would like to buy some eggs from me when (if) I have enough. I've been told there's a quite a few people keeping them in this area, but so far I don't know any of them so yes, it's great to chat to someone else, especially as you say, someone else who is at the same stage

 

I'm glad your son likes his present, although I have to hope he gets the dog he wants soon I can remember how much I wanted one at that age (I wanted a pony as well but I did get a puppy when I was 10 lol) My boys were thrilled with our girls at first, but their interest has waned slightly, although it has revived somewhat now Sam has begun to oblige and lay eggs. I agree it's not a very Londonish attitude to show such interest in hens, but is always to be encouraged BTW, I love that you called your Pepperpot Metallica, they are one of my own favorite bands and my cat is also named after another favorite. His brother was Judas but we sadly lost him some years ago.