Friday, February 11, 2011

The hens are picking up speed on their egg laying the last few days. They laid 7 today. Combined with the last few days that is 33 eggs altogether. To many to eat. Gonna have to sell some.

Hmmm---that also means that I need to buy another bag of oyster shell to keep their shells strong.
I rescued some hens once that had been penned and fed only hen scratch.
They were laying some eggs when I got them but the shells were paper thin and would break in the nest as soon as the hens would lay them. Some of the eggs would have no shell just the tough inner membrane.
I changed their feed to a custom mixed higher protein crumble (about 20%) because they were so underweight and out of condition. I added #2 Hen Grit and Oyster Shell every day to their feeder to make sure they were eating it.
Within 2 weeks their shells were thickening and less were breaking. By the end of that Summer their shells were almost normal.
At that point I put them on a regular 17% protein All in One crumble food.
By the next Spring their shells were perfect and their yolks bright orange from all the fresh food and bugs.

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