I have 2 hens and one of them (a Califonia White) is laying extremely thin shelled eggs. In fact for 4 days in a row I've found her eggs broken and possibly eaten.
Several weeks ago I found an eaten egg so I put a plastic egg in one of the nesting boxes and didn't have any problem till now.
My Ameracauna went through a typical molt this winter and now is laying eggs with good strong shells. Does not molting produce thin shelled eggs?
My Califonia White never did go into a molt and kept laying everyday but she is looking very scrawny now....Any ideas??? Thanks.
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I would isolate her from the others until you figure out if you can stop her from eating the eggs. Otherwise the others might start eating them too.
(Sorry I didn't see this sooner, I've been out of town.)
I watched "Cali" (the Calif White) as she was in the nesting box. She was very careful to make sure the plastic eggs were all under her. Then I just waited till she finally laid her egg and then I immediately opened the nest lid and grabbed the egg. It's shell was once again paper thin and almost translucent on one end. The next day I did the same thing and again thin shelled. So I started wondering if maybe Cali just wasn't getting enough feed since she was much thinner than "Snickers" (the Ameracauna). The feeder I've been using (for over a year) doesn't freely let the crumble out very fast so maybe "Snickers" was scarfing up most of the feed. So now every morning I've been shaking the feeder to let more feed flow out and I leave lots of oyster shell in little cups near by. Since I've been doing that "Cali's" egg shells are back to normal again and no more eaten eggs. I think what was happening was when she would try to move the egg over to the plastic ones with her beak it would just break open & she would eat it....
I think the mystery is solved....and of course it was because of all your great thoughts and help. Thank you all so much. I've attached a picture of the 2 girls.
Chris
Snickers & Cali.JPG
You might want to consider using a different feeder so you don't have to babysit it all the time.
I made a feeder for almost free that works great.
You need:
3 gal bucket with lid(I got one for free from Basha's bakery dept.)
saucer for plastic planter that's about 2 " bigger than the bottom of the bucket
1/4" by 1 1/2" galvonized bolt, nut and washers
Drill holes in the sides of the bucket at the bottom.
Drill a hole in the center of the bucket and the saucer.
Bolt the bucket to the saucer.
That's it!
Hang it off the ground to avoid the chickens beaking out food.
I put an old bowl in the bucket to help the feed flow to the holes and not get trapped in the center.
Also, I ended up drilling another hole right next to each of these in this picture to make it flow better.
DSC_0018.JPG
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