Hello and welcome to BYC, its great to have ya here! :welcome:frowThere are a lot of quail keepers here as well! Our members keep poultry of all kinds, even pheasants, emus, peacocks etc. ☺️
Sometimes I do bake eggshells too. You can try 365 degrees for about 15 mins- then crush in a baggie, or with a mortar and pestel (don't know how to spell that lol.)
I had a white rock named Agnes as well.❤️
Definitely do the calcium citrate pills as Eggcessive suggested. They really help.
Do you offer supplemental calcium to your chickens free choice?
My bad, I did not see the first pic in the original post. My computer did not load completely lol. The black one, I believe is female. The chocolate orp is questionable. Marans sometimes have larger combs, at least IME, so pullet's combs can develop as fast or faster than roo combs.
It looks EXACTLY like my black sexlink at home. Feathers, size, face, legs, everything. If your chick is a black sexlink, it is a female. If it wasn't, I would still say female.
This is Basil!! She dwells at the petting farm I work at. She is an angel and waddles up to all the guests and plops down in front of them, asking for pets.
I know that this is an older thread, but how is your hen doing @MamaPoult?
What is your roost situation like? Are they wide enough so that her feathers and skin can cover her feet??
My thoughts are that each rooster favors a certain hen or a few certain hens, so he is likely mating with the darker brown laying hen the most. I am not sure of the other reasons why this could be happening.