Egg shells

I have baked some egg shells in the oven, crushed them and added them to dishes of mash which I gave the girls yesterday and today.

All the girls seem to have stopped laying apart from Freckles. She has now laid three eggs (every other day) and all have been under her roost spot and have been soft shelled. The really odd thing is that Dandelion had this problem last year from the start of her laying and yet this year she is fine.  Freckles has always been the best layer and was always at the grit and her eggs always had little calcium bubbles on the shells. This makes it weird that she is now laying soft shells.

I saw her go to the grit yesterday for the first time in ages. My theory is that as  she had taken a months break from laying she had stopped going to the grit. I hope the crushed egg shells will give her boost.

Three dishes but at first this is the favourite one

Speckles tries another dish

The girls decide that all three dishes are okay

Emerald and Speckles both stopped laying in June last year so I think that they are now finished for this year.

I have another theory about the seramas. They are a breed that is prone to going broody. I think that when they don’t go broody they need to take a break from laying eggs. If broody they would naturally take a break. Freckles recently took a break and Cinnamon and Dandelion were laying at least every other day until the last day of May and are now taking a break.

Freckles laid twelve eggs in April and then two in May before her break. Cinnamon laid twelve eggs in May and Dandelion laid thirteen eggs in May. Emerald laid fifteen eggs in May and Speckles laid four.

I am hoping that Freckles egg shells will soon get back to normal. Of the three recent eggs each time she has looked unhappy but less so on each occasion. Each time she has taken herself to bed early and each egg has been broken under her roost spot in the morning. This morning the shell was less soft and was intact on the top but broken on the bottom from landing on the shed floor even though the layer of shavings is deep.

I hope this improvement in each egg will continue until she is fully back to normal. It is ironic that she is currently our own girl laying and yet we have been unable to eat any of her eggs. I have had to resort to buying eggs once more.

I am hopeful that Cinnamon and Dandelion will resume laying after a break. More importantly though I hope Freckles gets back to her usual, good, egg laying, self.

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4 Responses to Egg shells

  1. David says:

    Do hope she returns to normal soon.

    • Carol says:

      Me too. She doesn’t realised she has laid it and once again went and sat in the nest box today. After a while I lifted her out and she accepted it.

  2. marion.pharo says:

    Hope all will be well soon.

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