Britannia Ovens (esp Range cookers) your experience

[MaryKate]

I am sure I read somewhere that red mites can cause marks on eggshells. I am wondering whether this is right and if so - what sort of marks? Both my girls lay nice brown eggs (when they get their act together that is, I am still getting a number of softies from Marleen). However, Marleen's eggshells are unblemished whilst Clodagh's are always speckly - sort small darker brown blobs. It makes it easier to tell who is laying and who is not, but I just wonder why the same breed chicken lays a speckly egg and the other doesn't. I think I spend far too long worrying about these chickens - they seem more than healthy really - but just wondering whether the speckles could be due to red mites, although I clean the Eglu regularly with Poultry Shield and dust everything with Diatom (including girls). Any ideas?

[Egluntyne]

I guess they would both be affected if it was red mite.

[Olly]

I'd have thought they would both be affected, too.

 

I think that it's probably just a normal variation in the chicken's genetic make-up - when I had two I could always tell their eggs apart because of the shape!

[MaryKate]

Thank you Egluntyne and Olly. I had the same thought as you - but once I started worrying about it, I needed to check out with someone who has wisdom about these things. I got some books out of a library yesterday and there was a picture of a speckly egg exactly like Clodaghs! I have seen speckly eggs in our supermarket occasionally, but Clodaghs go beyond these and look as if she has been flicking a paintbrush round - very random splodges rather than speckles. So... I am now going to stop reading all the 'problem' bits on the forum and just enjoy the funny bits. I just hope I was never this neurotic about my children!