I found this soft-shelled egg on the ground near the coop; one of the chickens must have pushed it out of the nest box and down the ramp (some of them will do that to a regular egg as well, rotten girls). There's been no other soft eggs since, and their regular eggshells have been nicely thick, so it must have been a fluke. Regardless, I've been putting calcium citrate into their feed, and they still have their oyster shell and granite grit mix to nibble next to their regular feed. I'll also order kelp meal for additional mineral supplementation.Now if I could just keep them out of the dog food...
I hope that's the last softee.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you need to train them to play fetch...if they're in the dog food already...it might be easy and would surely help when it is time to get the paper!
ReplyDeleteWe get these soft ones every once in a while too... you are doing the right thing with all of those supplements. A good dose of lambs quarters after weeding the garden has calcium and lots of vitamins and minerals. We feed them the kelp when they are not free ranging.
ReplyDeleteBTW, just got our first eggs from our young pullets, the first flock we incubated and raised at home. An egg to celebrate!
@Natalie: me too!
ReplyDelete@warren: the only dog trick they seemed to have learned is "begging". They'll line up at the back door and chirrup dolefully, like they haven't been fed for weeks...
@Fritillarys: congratulations! From egg to egg!
Not sure if you would be able to answer this or not, but I live in Georgia and today I walked out to get the mail and laying in my drive way was a soft shelled white egg. I'm almost certain its duck egg and it was just laid at some point today. When a soft shelled egg is layed can it be hatched?
ReplyDeleteHi Inica! I have no clue whether a soft shelled egg could be hatched. I would guess not, as the hard shell provides protection against the momma hen/duck's weight, as well as heat/cold insulation and bacteria protection. Then the baby eventually pecks its way out of the shell - they might not be able to do so against a flexible shell! Good luck in your information search...
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