Chicken egg shells more fragile in winter?
Just a passing observation – both yesterday and today, when I’ve collected the eggs from the girls, I’ve managed to crack one of the shells on the way back up to the house.
I’m not sure what happened yesterday but today, the crack happened when two eggs bumped into each other – not too heavily, just a little jostling-together-in-my-pouch bump. I’m sure they will have bumped together that heavily all year but it’s only now that we’re seeing cracking. The shells aren’t soft and squishy; they’re hard shell but just seem a little more fragile than normal.
Anyone else seeing anything similar?
I don’t think it’s a calcium deficiency per se as they’re getting good quantities of balanced layers pellets, have access to plenty of shell in the grit store, and have also had “poultry spice” mineral supplement in their food this week.
I know human bodies need Vitamin D to help absorb calcium – so maybe it’s the same for them and the short days are reducing their uptake.
It’s not a big problem – in fact, Lily will be very happy about it because she’ll get it if we don’t think we’ll use it today – just an observation. Would love to hear other chickeneers thoughts on this…
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I'm Louisa and I live a Really Good Life. I grow, I craft, I cook and I make the most of what I've got instead of forever craving more.
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We tend to spoil the girls in the winter and they often cut back on activity so maybe they don’t eat enough calcium in their diet. We are terrible and throw all sorts of kids leftovers etc, the old girls were slowing down anyway so we figure we should treat them a bit more when it gets cold. There is a funny hierarchy when it comes to food in our house. Its kids, me, dog, chickens. Bizarrely this holds true for most things except carrot. Its just about the only thing my dog and chickens won’t eat. Anyone else find that. (oh and no choco, grapes and raisins and no more avocados (although he did love them up till we found out about the toxicity to dogs) , not that I would let any of that past my level in the hierarchy :-))