Sooo much pooping

[jennym]

Hi,

 

My Bluebelle Belle has been laying for almost a month and is still struggling sometimes. She lays softies sometimes, and she is quite obviously uncomfortable and unhappy for a day or so before. Sometimes she sits on the nest and can't lay (usually the morning after a softie) and just squawks away as if she's sore. Sometimes a second yolk comes out with the softie, and occasionally she lays a double-yolker. Some of her eggs are 'normal' too, like this morning. I've now got some ACV that I'll start adding to their water, and oyster shell grit is available for them. I throw them some Bokashi bran once in a while, and they get a small amount of mealworms occasionally as a treat or to get them back in the run.

 

I know there's a 'learning' period for young hens, but I'm just wondering a) when (if?) this is likely to improve and b) is there anything I can do to help her? Those softies make her downright miserable and I feel bad for her

 

Cheers,

Jen

[Egluntyne]

Are you feeding her on a good quality brand of layers pellets, with minimal treats/s"Ooops, word censored!"s?

[jennym]

We now have Dodson & Horrell layers pellets, which I've started switching them to as of yesterday - mixing with the old pellets gradually to get them used to it. I think the old ones were "Humphrey Feeds" organic layers pellets - we bought them from Widgits Farm when we got the chickens.

 

We haven't been giving them kitchen s"Ooops, word censored!"s. They get a small amount of mealworms most days, usually just a handful chucked in the run in the evenings to get them back in after a FR. We have occasionally given them a bit of sweetcorn but not in a while, and even then only a small amount (about a third of a cob between the three of them).