Dandelion has been laying thin shelled eggs right from when she started laying. She is clueless about laying and right from the start she would sit in a nest box then lay an egg in the run or lay an egg in the run then sit in the nest box. Sometimes she sits in the nest box then lays the egg the following day. Occasionally her egg will be in a nest box and sometimes it will be in the chicken shed.
Her last three eggs have been broken. The first was laid in the run and had been broken and eaten. The next two were laid first thing in the morning in the chicken shed. They had both been broken but not eaten. They were broken side up which leads me to wonder if they have been pecked. I think perhaps they were pecked and then the automatic door opened and the girls abandoned the egg in the rush to get outside.
I am only speculating as I can’t be sure but below is the egg facing the way that I found it.
Dandelion’s egg
I squeezed the egg shell and it is thin but I don’t think it would have broken on it’s own. The next time we have eggs I might dry some shells in the oven, crush them and add them to some mash. Dandelion has always laid thin shelled eggs but she doesn’t seem to suffer when laying.
Amber, our bantam vorwerk, always struggled with egg laying. She would lay thin shelled or soft shelled eggs and always looked poorly before laying. Luckily she didn’t lay often. I tried giving her crushed egg shells, limestone powder and cod liver oil, but nothing made a difference so I am not convinced that this can be changed.
The good thing is that unlike Amber, Dandelion looks healthy and happy and doesn’t struggle with egg laying at all. In fact she seems unaware that she has laid an egg most of the time and will sit in the nest box afterwards for a while and then give up.
I decided to scramble the egg and give it back to the girls rather than waste it. I scramble it in a little olive oil and water. I was also about to give the girls a treat of probiotic yogurt. This is good for their digestion system but must only be given in small amounts, about a teaspoon per hen and only occasionally. It shouldn’t be given more than once a week and in fact I give it about once a month. As the egg was only a tiny amount I mixed it with the yogurt and put it in four little dishes.
I give the girls some yogurt
The girls are loving the yogurt
Apricot has a yogurt beak
Emerald is splattered with specks of yogurt
We had to go out for a few hours and when we returned all the dishes were empty and Emerald looked clean once more. I am never sure how she manages to get clean but she never has the specks of yogurt on her feathers for long.
I think the girls enjoyed their treat.
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They look as though they love that.
They do love it. It always surprises me how the dishes look “licked clean” when they have to use beaks.
I think that, if the girls had pecked that egg, they’d not have stopped until all the contents, and probably the shell, were consumed; it’s always reassuring to know you don;t have an egg eater.
My husband said that he thought that too so I think that you are both probably right. As you say, that at least, is a good thing.
That’s interesting what you describe about Dandelion. I have just posted similar because Belle is doing it! Today I saw her go in the nest box even though I knew she’d laid the egg at some point in the night while on the perch. She sat in the nest box for at least half an hour.
I guess they must have a feeling of needing to lay?
I think they do have a feeling of needing to lay. I have seen this before in a past girl. Dandelion seems clueless about when she needs to lay. I have seen her sit in the nest box then give up and maybe lay next day. I have seen her sit in the nest box after she has laid in the run or shed as if she isn’t aware that she has laid. When I know that she has already laid I lift her out and place her in front of a bit of apple. She starts pecking at the apple and doesn’t return to the nest box as if she has forgotten all about it.