The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: mab on October 05, 2011, 07:58:27 pm
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Hi all,
My 3 hens have stopped laying except for odd eggs without shells - they have a rubbery membrane which are sometimes unbroken - any ideas?
The hens are otherwise OK, they have oystershell & grit with their feed, and one hen is moulting.
I did have a problem with one hen laying crinkly-wrinkly eggs a couple of months ago and gave her some antibiotics, and she recovered and had started laying normal eggs, though her crest is still a bit dull. Now I'm just finding these shell-less eggs every other day or so (she's not the hen that's moulting).
Thx
mab
PS. I may be slow to respond depending on if I've overcome talktalk's problems or not
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how much grit do they have access to?
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Well the shell is in their food, and the grit (from the local feed supplier) is in a cup by the coop - there's half a cup - they don't seem to use it noticeably though.
They are free range so they have access to real grit.
thx
mab
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Sometimes hens lay these lash eggs at the beginning and end of their laying cycles, even when they have plenty of oyster shell. I would only be concerned if a hen is laying only lash eggs for several weeks. Can you identify the hen which is producing them? Sometimes they could be caused by an infection but most likely when they come back into lay in the new year they will all be ok. Meanwhile, they are perfectly edible, if you don't mind how funny they feel :o
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So it could be normal then - it's been going on for a couple of weeks. They usually get broken before I can collect them, alas.
Trying to catch them in the act is difficult - work keeps getting in the way - so I don't know who's laying them.
Thanks for the replies
mab