Squirrel Man
In the Brooder
- Jul 14, 2022
- 11
- 27
- 44
First post is a question, an issue I'm suddenly having. I have 6 sex link reds, they generally lay on average 5 eggs a day but with the summer heat they've slowed a bit averaging 3 maybe. They're on layer pellets but throughout the year they eat a LOT of scraps (vegetable and bread stuff that my local hospital cafeteria saves for me daily - I bribe them with eggs lol), probably 75% of their diet is scraps. They've done very well, healthy and productive on this system. I also supplement them with a heavy dose of oyster shell once a week or so.
They're 2 and a half years old and lately their shells have been thinning. At first they were impossibly thick, much thicker than store bought eggs but just lately they're thinner and sometimes crack easily. I do crumble up their shells and feed them back to them.
So just recently for a few days straight now I'm getting one single flattened egg in their layer box. Every day just one egg, it's really odd. Never happened before. They're not eating the shells, I clean it out and throw it away. There are 5 side boxes in the coop but they consistently lay in just one box. Boxes are padded with cedar chips and sometimes when they kick chips out an egg might break on the wooden bottom but I have them fairly well padded.
Any thoughts and suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
They're 2 and a half years old and lately their shells have been thinning. At first they were impossibly thick, much thicker than store bought eggs but just lately they're thinner and sometimes crack easily. I do crumble up their shells and feed them back to them.
So just recently for a few days straight now I'm getting one single flattened egg in their layer box. Every day just one egg, it's really odd. Never happened before. They're not eating the shells, I clean it out and throw it away. There are 5 side boxes in the coop but they consistently lay in just one box. Boxes are padded with cedar chips and sometimes when they kick chips out an egg might break on the wooden bottom but I have them fairly well padded.
Any thoughts and suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks!