1. What causes soft shelled eggs?
Soft-shelled eggs are
common in young pullets just starting their laying career. In older hens, it is usually
caused by a calcium deficiency. To remedy this, give the hens free access to shell grit or
finely crushed egg shells. This helps increase the calcium levels and the problem usually
stops. It is a good idea to allow fowls to have shell grit all the time, as they need
certain grits to help break down and utilise their food.
2. When do hens start to lay eggs?
Pullets begin to lay at between 20 and 26 weeks of age
(usually) though seasonal influences can delay this.
3. How can I stop my chooks from eating eggs?
This is a common habit with some chooks and
is difficult to break once it gets established. Usually only one chook starts breaking the
eggs but of course, the others soon get the taste for it once they see how it is done.
There are a number of remedies, some or all or none of which may work. Before you try any
of these, often feeding a liberal amount of shell grit to the birds will solve the
problem. If not, read on...
Remedy 1. Snip the end of the top beak off so it is a little shorter than the
bottom beak. Don't cut so far back that it bleeds. The beak will grow back in time with no
ill effects.
Remedy 2. Place golf balls or similar hard objects in the nesting area.
Constantly pecking the hard balls (with no juicy reward) can deter some chooks from
pecking real eggs. Gold balls can also disguise the real eggs in the nest.
Remedy 3. Take a dozen eggs and blow the contents out. Simply bore a hole in
each end of the egg shell and blow through one hole so the contents come out of the other.
The contents can be eaten as omelettes or scrambled eggs etc. Roll the empty shells one at
a time into the pen with the egg eating chooks. Once they eat the first, roll in another
and so on. After a while they get sick of eating the shells and stop.
Remedy 4. Blow the eggs as above. Find the hottest chilli paste, Tabasco,
mustard etc and mix into a paste. Using a syringe, fill the empty eggs with the mixture.
As before, roll the eggs into the pen one at a time. Be prepared to laugh as they run for
the water dish! For this to work, it is best not to feed the birds beforehand as they will
certainly associate the burning mouth, burning bum combination with the eggs! A variation
to this is to coat the mixture onto golf balls so they hurt their beaks as well.
Remedy 5. Find the main culprit and get rid of him or her. Often a rooster
will be the main culprit... obviously HE doesn't care about the pain and hard work
associated with laying eggs... sound familiar ladies? If you are breeding seriously, and
the rooster is the offender, simply keep him separated from the hens and only put him in
with them every three or four days and only for an hour or so. He will still fertilise the
eggs but will not have access to them.
4. Do hens need a rooster
to lay eggs?
No. In fact, a rooster will sometimes be so vigorous with the hens
that they actually lay fewer eggs.
5. How often do hens lay eggs?
Depending on the breed and strain, most will lay an egg every two
days, though some will lay almost an egg a day. Some breeds are notoriously bad layers and
may only lay a dozen eggs all year.
6. How long after mating are eggs fertile?
Seven to 14 days usually. I allow
about 10 days from the first mating before collecting eggs for incubation.
7. At what temperatures do eggs hatch in an incubator?
If the incubator has a fan to
circulate the air, you want it at 100F. If the incubator is still air then you need to
have the temperature at about 103F measured at the TOP of the eggs. In this kind of
incubator, you will need to make sure that all the eggs are the same size or else the
bigger ones will get too hot and the smaller ones will be too cold. Don't forget to turn
the eggs at least three times each day and to make sure you have a water dish always
filled for humidity. Good luck!
8. How can a broody hen be made to stop sitting?
To get a persistent broody hen to
stop sitting, place her in a wire bottomed cage and hang the cage from a tree branch, shed
rafter or something like that. She will not like the feel of fresh, cool air on her behind
and will find it too uncomfortable to stay broody for very long... about four days should
see her wanting out. You'll find she will probably go into a small moult
before she begins laying again.
9. What is egg candling and how is it done?
After about a week of incubation, you can candle eggs, by making a
cardboard cone, the big end of which fits over a strong flashlight. If you hold the eggs
over the small hole with the light on (dark room is essential) an infertile egg will
appear clear, whereas a fertile egg will be dark looking and will show small veins inside
the shell. Those that have died in the shell often appear as a dark line across the shell.
10. What causes poor hatchability?
It could be a number of things. My experiences tell me that firstly, look at the feeding
regime of the parent birds. Breeding fowls must have a high protein diet which can be
supplemented with avian multi-vitamins. It is important that the diet be high in the
Vitamin B group. Feeding each bird a yeast tablet once a week is a safe way to ensure high
Vitamin B levels. Breeding birds should be on this diet for some weeks before collecting
the eggs for incubating.
Secondly, what kind of incubator are you using? Sometimes when the eggs go down into the
hatching tray, the bottom section of the incubator may be slightly cooler, which slows the
chicks' metabolism sufficiently to stop the hatching process. Another cause for chicks
dying upon pipping, is a build up of bacteria to levels that kill the chicks as soon as
they breathe their first air. Fumigation of the incubator should be carried out on a
regular basis, and a light misting every once in a while with a warm solution of phenyl
may help too.
11. How
do I get a broody hen to stop sitting and start raising the babies she has already
hatched?
Try moving the hen, chicks and all to a different pen, preferably facing a different
direction than the one they are in now. Don't provide a nest box and this should be enough
to get that hen off her butt and acting like a mother.
12. Can
cracked eggs be hatched?
Yes. Sometimes you can paint the crack with a little nail
polish, but if the shell has a hole right through, bacteria will invade the egg and kill
the embryo. Speed is of the essence.
13. Can
double yolk eggs hatch?
I would never personally set double yolk eggs. I have seen
deformed chicks in them, but never any that hatched. Sort of like "Siamese twin"
chicks, if you like. It's not worth the trouble.
14. How is a sitting hen kept happy?
Because of the protracted
time a broody hen will be sitting in the one spot, she often becomes the target for every
bug in the shed. Mites and lice often accumulate in vast numbers in and around the nest
box. Make sure you sprinkle a good quality sulphur based insecticide powder in the nest
and on the hen. You can put pungent herbs like wormwood in the nest box also. Check under
the box for mites and spray these if found. It doesn't hurt to do that anyway as a
precaution. I have seen hens so infested with mites that they have actually died on the
nest from anaemia. Of course, sometimes a hen just gets lazy and changes her mind about
going through raising babies, getting them through puberty, the teenage years and... hey,
sounds like my wife and I!!
15. How can a broody hen be separated from others without going off
the brood?
Broody hens are always fickle creatures. It is always best to remove the OTHER chooks away
from the broody one so as to not disturb her at all. Most broodies will stop sitting if
they are moved. It's just their way. Once the eggs have been started to incubate, they
will not last long once they go cold. If a hen is disturbed and goes off the brood don't
worry, you will get another chance to hatch chicks, just give her time to lay another
clutch and remember not to disturb her next time. When a hen goes broody, nearly every
other hen in the place will decide to lay their eggs in her nest box too. One way to
minimise others laying in with her is to build a series of nest boxes which can be
isolated from each other if the need arises. If you really HAVE to move the hen, do it at night and move the entire nest box. Try to face the
box in the same direction as it was previously in a pen that is similar in size to the old
one. The trick is to get her to believe the others left her... not the other way round. It
is better to try moving her before you set the real eggs.
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