Pro - Does anyone else's nest boxes get soaked in rain?

[richieeee]

Hi

 

I got an Eglu in April and 3 hens, each a different hybrid, so we could recognise them.

 

Unfortunately I haven't got off to a good start. Within 6 weeks my first hen died, confirmed by the vet as egg bound with her first egg. The other two are fine, but both their eggs don't poach properly, compared to eggs from the shops, farm or from my friend's hens.

 

I normally poach eggs for 2 minutes, yolk runny, white cooked. I've done this for years. However my hen's eggs have a cooked outer white, but when you put a knife through the white, the internal white runs away like milk. I've never seen anything like it before.

 

I've had an egg from my friend's hen, which was a large egg, poached it with one of my smaller eggs and at the 2 minute mark the large egg was cooked, my smaller egg, had the uncooked runny milky inner white. I did find this article http://www.perfectpoachedegg.com/perfect_poached_egg.htm about newly laid eggs, "Eggs for poaching .... If quite new-laid, the white is so milky it is almost impossible to set it" So I've tried poaching a newly laid egg, 1 day old, 2 day old etc, same thing. I have to poach my eggs 30 seconds longer, which means the yolk isn't as runny.

 

I'm disappointed how the first two months have worked out and I'm hoping someone has come across this before and has some advice. Reading online I've read quality issue with the whites could be illness/ disease, but they look and behave as I would expect. So perhaps it is something nutrition wise? Or because they are young? They've been laying for about 7 weeks now.

 

I feed them the organic company layers pellets with omega 3 and let them free range over a large grass area. I did wonder whether I've let them free range too much, and they should have more time in the run, thus eating more layers pellets than grass.

 

Has anyone come across this before?

 

Rich

[mimi5]

Hi and welcome

 

Sometimes chicken keeping has a few snags, just like most things in life really But hopefully things are settled for you now

 

I can't say I've experienced this with my eggs, but 2 obvious things that you could do easily are:-

 

1, worm your hens with flubenvet. You can either buy the pwder & mix it with your own pellets or buy ready mixed pellets.

2, as you suggest yourself limit the free ranging, say to late afternoon & maybe just for a couple of hours. When you worm them they must be shut in their run for the whole week, worming pellets only!

 

After doing these 2 things see what your eggs are like. Somebody else may have other suggestions for you too. There's always help here

 

I only keep bantams and their eggs are smaller with less white......Let us know if you do try anything and if it makes a difference

Edited June 4, 2015 by Guest

[Beantree]

You may find that it is simply a case of your eggs being too fresh Richieeee. Shop bought eggs can be up to 4 weeks old and in that time some of the water content evaporates making the white thicker. We don't poach fresh eggs but leave them a week and we leave hard boiled eggs even longer or the shell sticks to the white.

[Olly]

I agree - 'stale' eggs are better for meringues or hard-boiling, it's because your eggs are so fresh that the white is like this. I doubt it's anything to do with worming or what they are eating.

[Purplemaniacs]

I thought you needed fresh eggs for poaching and older ones for hard boiling. But I maybe wrong.

 

Chrissie

[Alis girls]

I was told fresh eggs dont make good cakes but I am not going to test the theory. Just glad to be having eggs. I thought it might be due to freshness. We have a wonderful omlette and YS had a lovely fried egg yesterday - the white was more buoyant so took longer to cook whereas shop ones are watery. Hope your other girls are ok.