[henwood]

Dear All,
I am new to this forum and chicken keeping!
I have recently rescued 3 Barn system hens and they are doing fine except the eggs have increased in size.
I have read on the internet that egg size can increase with increase in the protein content of feed.
The question is should I feed them something with less protein ?
I am worried the large eggs may cause problems for my chicks with all sorts of associated problems!

 

[bantam novice]

Hello Henwood and welcome to the forum. 

We are a friendly lot here and love pictures so how about some pictures of your girls? 

How old are your hens and what are you feeding them?  Hens can often lay misshapen or different sized eggs as they come to the end of their laying life.

On here the general advice is to stick to layers pellets, which are correctly balanced nutritionally with maybe a handful of mixed corn or some other treat an hour or so before they go in to perch for the night.

Some people give greens and table scraps as a treat but on the whole they should be a small proportion of what your hens eat.

Congratulations on your rescue and giving your girls a happy retirement 

[henwood]

Hi bantam novice,
thank for the advise.
I feed them organic layers pellets which they are doing fine on.
They must be about 18/20 months as I have had them 2 months and I think they were about 116/18 months old when I got them.

I tried to attach phot by using the insert image button, but just seems to insert text (img/img).
must be doing something wrong.

 

[terri]

my warren lays bumpy eggs sometimes and pointy at both ends shes 2 and a half mostly they are normal shape
but the 3 of them lay medium to large eggs with the ocasional whopper

[shetan]

Don't know if this is true or not but when we went to pick up our ex-batts, we were told that the egg size does sometimes increase after their first year and this is one of the many reasons why supermarkets feel justified in sending the birds to the pie factory. 

in the case of our girls, the eggs do vary in size from day to day - sometimes we have dinky eggs and at others we have whoppers! one of them even laid a triple yolked egg which left her bleeding from the vent and required first aid. 

she's fine now though and has resumed normal production 

i wouldn't worry too much about the diversity of the shape, colour and size of eggs. lots of factors can effect them - as long as your birds are happy, healthy and laying, all is right with the world