[Roughlee Handled]

Ok after my Magpie problem resolved and a few "silly" posts I have a serious one for a change.  My "littly" has not produced a egg for  about 4 days and two days ago both girls laid out side and on the grass very very  strange, normally lay inside. Biggy had usual egg but littly had laid 2 eggs with really soft very papery shells.   She has been known to do the odd one in the past!! She has access to oyster shell though to me it looks more lick clam shell but its a form of calcium and last night i ground egg shell and put that into her feed.
  So my question is could she be producing eggs and the shell be thin and either breaking inside her or she is reabsorbing the eggs?  I know horses can reabsorb the fetas in the first few weeks.  Could this be a problem?

Oh and the ex batts arrive on Sat pm so neither of them will probably produce for about 3-4 days after that.

Thanks again.

Stuart

[Aunt Sally]

Ok after my Magpie problem resolved and a few "silly" posts I have a serious one for a change.  My "littly" has not produced a egg for  about 4 days and two days ago both girls laid out side and on the grass very very  strange, normally lay inside. Biggy had usual egg but littly had laid 2 eggs with really soft very papery shells.   She has been known to do the odd one in the past!! She has access to oyster shell though to me it looks more lick clam shell but its a form of calcium and last night i ground egg shell and put that into her feed.
  So my question is could she be producing eggs and the shell be thin and either breaking inside her or she is reabsorbing the eggs?  I know horses can reabsorb the fetas in the first few weeks.  Could this be a problem?

Oh and the ex batts arrive on Sat pm so neither of them will probably produce for about 3-4 days after that.

Thanks again.

Stuart

First of all check their accommodation for red mite !  These can put the chooks off of going to the nest box and reduce egg production.

The shell you describe is cockle shell and is often sold as poultry grit but is very hard and difficult for the hens to digest.  Oyster shell is much softer so easier to adsorbs for them.  So try to get some of that ! Ground up baked egg shells will be helpful and some limestone flour for a couple of weeks will give them a quick calcium boost.

[Roughlee Handled]

Thanks aunty for a prompt reply.  I have given them ground egg shell last night.  I will try and get some pucker oyster shells and some limestone flower.  The coop is 1 month old and I clean it out once a week taken out the two perches so I am pretty sure I dont have red mite though a photo of what they look like would be good.

[GrannieAnnie]

You need a microscope for the red mite roughlee, rather than a photo.  They are tiny little things who rush around the cracks in the coops or on the ends of perches in their thousands!  They are light grey when young, getting redder and redder as they gorge on the chickens blood.

I take my specs and a torch down at dusk when I put the chooks away.  The first thing you may notice is bits of blood when you lift up a nest box lid.  I didn't realise last year the first time we got them that that was what it was, thought a chicken had caught her wing or something (dingbat what I am!)  But when I realised what it was....... well, they make you itchy just thinking about them!!!

And as to your new ex batts not laying for 3-4 days, some of ours laid eggs in the boxes on the way home from the rescuer!!!!

[Roughlee Handled]

Wow laying in on the way home wow! Good old ex batts.  Just thought that with all the up upheaval and the ex batts arrival my girls would not lay.  I will let the stock pile of eggs go down a bit. I will keep my eye open for red thingamabobs.

[Aunt Sally]

To check for red mite use a piece of kitchen towel and wipe it in any suspect area.  If it gets stained with red it's the blood from your chooks sucked up by red mite  :shock:

[agapanthus]

Grannie....what's blook?

[Foxy]

Dont know what a blook is but what is a dingbat????and are they dangerous!

[GrannieAnnie]

What's this?  Pick on a grannie day??   :cry:  :cry:

You know what blook is Aggy surely?  It's blood not spell checked properly!!!!      

And a dingbat is something we used to say when I was young, meaning a bit of an idiot!!!!  like me!!!!  

Dingbat: (Slang. An empty-headed or silly person)!

[Roughlee Handled]

..........You know what blook is Aggy surely?  It's blood not spell checked properly!!!!       ............

Grannie I use Firefox instead of Internet Explorer you can get an add-on for it for free that spell checks when you are typing in forums.  It is great for me as I cant spell.

[Roughlee Handled]

Thought I would show you what i got this morning!!

[Aunt Sally]

I feel another photo topic coming on for the info section.

"Odd Eggs"

Yay or Nay  :?:

[Vember]

I feel another photo topic coming on for the info section.

"Odd Eggs"

Yay or Nay  :?:

Great idea Auntie
I have my wierd goose egg photo's and a weird hen egg

[Aunt Sally]

I'll start a new topic and then pull them all together into a info article.

[Foxy]

P&RH that is seriously odd -is it two eggs attached? :shock: