chickenmum Posted May 17, 2015 Share Posted May 17, 2015 One of my chickens has just started laying and produced two wonderful hard-shell eggs. However, yesterday I let them roam free in my garden all day and today I found in the tray of my egglu (where the poo normally goes) one broken very soft shell egg and one egg yolk with no shell. Can it be that because of their roaming in my garden they have not had sufficient calcium to produce a shell or is this common for newly laying chickens? Would it be better if I let them free-range in the afternoon after they have had enough of the layer's pellets, so sufficient balance in the diet for that day? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olly Posted May 17, 2015 Share Posted May 17, 2015 Don't worry - this is common for hens which have just come into lay, the egg-laying process sometimes happens too quickly and the shell isn't formed (it can also happen at the end of their egg-laying career, too). It's a good idea to keep them in for at least part of the day so that they eat a good quantity of pellets, but it's very unlikely that this was caused by the free-ranging so I wouldn't worry too much about that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickenmum Posted May 17, 2015 Author Share Posted May 17, 2015 Thanks Olly, I was getting worried. I am a very novice hen keeper and worry about getting it wrong! This has reassured me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
