Eggs...

[Willow]

How long does it take young chickens to settle down to laying 'propa' eggs?
We had one perfect tiny egg followed by two paper thin shelled eggs , one small proper egg, then another two thin shelled ones, then one good sized proper egg and last night another thin shelled one.... Our Cybil with the wry tail is laying the 'good' eggs late morning.. The other efforts are being laid in the evening / night probably from a perch! dont know who's responsible for them..

[wendy]

No help I am afraid, mine are all ex battery hens. But I do have some youngsters coming next month so I would be interested to find out also.
Wendy

[PK]

Hi Willow

Hens will lay soft eggs sometimes if they have had a shock or in your case because they have moved to new surroundings and need time to settle . But I would have thought a couple of weeks would put this right. Is there any argy-bargy going on between the hens as they settle into a pecking order? Just a thought.

Phil

[Willow]

Hi PK.. I dont think its due to new surroundings... they are now about 19 weeks old and have only been laying for nearly two weeks.. (we've had them since they were 13 weeks).. they're used to the dogs and cats so I wouldnt know what would have shocked or upset them.. It seems to be just one or two of the chooks laying the thin eggs.. I'm now leaving them in the pen for about an hour longer in the mornings before letting them out to roam, maybe the offending chooks are not eating the pellets because they prefer whats on offer outside the pen, it will be a matter of 'eat your pellets before you go out to play'!!

[Willow]

We havent had a 'soft' egg for a couple of days now, and two eggs are laid before seven every morning - sometimes more later on.. Eeee between chooks eggs and kittens its a good life!!

[Morgs]

My ex batteries have laid huge eggs consistently since they were 'liberated'!! They taste delicious and the shells don't seem particularly soft and we don't seem to have had any eggy problems, such as transparent shells or liquid eggs or anything...BUT every time we hard boil one, it cracks. I know it sounds crazy, but EVERY SINGLE ONE CRACKS. I do take them out of the fridge first, bring them to room temp and put them in cold water and heat them slowly, and have tried an experiment with using tesco free range at the same time - they don't crack and mine do!!

Any ideas??

[AnnaB]

Hi Morgs
Have you tried a little vinegar in the cooking water - this is supposed to stop them cracking.

[Morgs]

Ta, I'll try it!

[Mo]

I thought the vinegar was supposed to stop the egg white bubbling out (by coagulating it ) after the egg has cracked.

[Willow]

I think you're right Mo.. thats why I add vinegar to poached eggs...