Last night before bedtime Amber looked unwell again and I knew she was about to lay another egg. She had been her usual bright self all day but at bedtime was just standing on the spot with her eyes closing. I now know this to be the sign of an egg on the way and wonder if it is always going to be like this when she lays.
I went in at dusk and both little girls had gone in the coop. The big girls were together on the high perch just like the night before. This seems to be the new routine!
This morning all the girls ran to greet me and I could see that Amber was back to her normal self again. I checked the nest box and sure enough, there was her next egg.
Amber’s sixth egg
Amber’s fith egg on the left and her sixth egg on the right
I don’t know why Amber is having problems with her eggs. All of Honey’s eggs have been normal (nine in total) whereas Amber has laid two tiny eggs, two soft shelled eggs, one normal egg and now one almost normal egg. I do wonder if Amber has started her egg laying at a younger age as she is quite a bit smaller than Honey. I would say that Honey is now about a third larger in size than Amber. Both have red, mature, combs though.
I will be starting the girls on limestone flour today which I hope will help the shells to improve and therefore make the egg laying process easier for them.
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Oh such a shame .You can cook that egg if you wish and feed it back to them.We approve of recycling !
Lime stone later on so hopefully that will help the poor girl. All that struggle and nothing worthwhile at the end .I would give it to all of them it would make it easier.. If they are getting too much calcium their eggs will have tiny bobbles on like hardened bubbles.
I don’t waste the eggs whatever the shells are like. I will give them all the limestone flour, as you say it’s easier. Hope it does the trick!
Gosh, I wish I had some advice for you. Certainly it sounds like she needs more calcium. Here in California, I can buy liquid calcium and based on the hen’s weight, put a certain number of drops into some food and feed it to her.
The only other thing I can think of is to put some KY or similar lubricant on her bung to help those eggs slip out.
I now have the limestone flour which is a powder that I can add to their mash. The odd thing is, that they are all on the same diet and Amber is the only one with odd eggs. She is quite a bit smaller than Honey though, but she is feisty and she soon bounces back.
If she’s getting more than her fair share of treats, that could cause this. If she’s not getting the right amount of calcium of protein from her feed, then the system gets out of whack. I’m guilty of causing this in my hens, especially in the summer when I make LOTS of salads and have lots of things to treat with.
I wouldn’t think this is the case as she is the smallest and has been the most picked on. She often gets kept away from the treats and has had her comb pecked until it bled twice recently. I am hopeful that this problem has passed now but am keeping a close eye on the situation.
I give greens in the morning and fruit in the afternoon with an occasional protein treat. Honey’s eggs were normal from the start and Amber’s eggs have been odd from the start. She looks too little to lay eggs at all.
I will try the limestone flour and I will try to be more careful with the treats. I know you are right that too many treats get them off balance and being so tiny, I guess a small treat is bigger to her.