Dandelion’s first egg of the year at last

When I opened the chicken shed this morning to poop pick I found Dandelion’s first egg of the year. It was between her roost spot and the pop hole as if she had just dropped it on her way out of the chicken shed. It was soft shelled as I had suspected it would be.

Dandelion’s first egg of the year

Cinnamon’s egg for size comparison

It was quite small which is a good thing as they are harder to pass with soft shells. Dandelion looked absolutely fine.

This means we now have all the girls laying but as I had suspected it looks as if Dandelion will continue with her egg laying problem. Her eggs have been like this since she started laying last year no matter how much limestone flour and cod liver oil or baked, crushed, egg shells I gave her. It seems that when they start with a problem like this it will always remain so as I found with Amber before Dandelion.

Dandelion looks bright and normal this morning though so I hope that she will just manage this. We had Amber for four years, so although I have never expected Dandelion to be a long lived girl, you never can tell. Having had Rusty and Apricot for only a year I feel that any time we have with Dandelion is a bonus.

Some good news is that Emerald and Speckles have been going in the chicken shed at bedtime, for the last three nights, since I blocked their two favourite perches. I will keep the perches blocked for a while until I am sure a new habit has been established.

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10 Responses to Dandelion’s first egg of the year at last

  1. Jen says:

    I’m trying lifeguard tonic for Bernadette who has only laid soft shelled eggs so far this year. Don’t yet know if it’s going to work because she hasn’t laid at all since she was poorly but I’ll let you know if it does.

    • Dandelion is our second girl to have this problem but we have had twenty one hens (plus one cockerel by mistake at the beginning of our chicken keeping) over about seven years of chicken keeping so I guess that’s not so bad. It does seem that if they are like it from the very start then is a problem with their egg making mechanics and there is little that can change that. If the problem hasn’t been there from the very start there is more of a chance that you may be able to improve things. I was only saying to my husband that we always seem to have one girl in our flock that can’t lay eggs properly when I did the count and realised that actually two out of more than twenty isn’t so bad. Let me know if the tonic helps.

  2. Sophie says:

    Yes, one of my girls always lays soft shells too Carol.

    xx

  3. Sophie says:

    I always only find the soft shell because the others (and I suppose Betty Boo too!) eat it!!

    xx

  4. David says:

    Pleased that she seems fine – always a worry, when they lay soft-shelled eggs. I had one last week not dissimilar, laid in the nest and uneaten (found it at 7.30 in the morning); fortunately, nothing more since – but they could have been there and eaten! No idea who produced it.

    • Again I feel reassured not to be alone in this. I wondered why I should have had two girls with this problem and then did the maths and realised it was a small percentage really and a more common problem than I had realised. You tend to think that chickens should be able to lay eggs without problem, surely that is what they do, then you research and realise that one of the most common problems with hens is egg laying. As you say though, the early morning one gets by without being noticed!

  5. marion.pharo says:

    Glad to hearDandelion has laid her egg a last, even if it is soft shelled, glad to hear she is looking well again, and that the girls are going to bed again.

    • It is good to have all the girls laying now even though Dandelion’s egg had a soft shell. She didn’t know she had laid it because she did a bit of shouting and then went and sat in the nest box for about an hour later in the morning. It is good to see her looking well though.

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