Different egg color and lack of laying

[Thomaswgordon]

We have 4 laying hens 2 years old. The last month or so, maybe a little less we’ve been getting 0-1 eggs per day with occasional eggs remainders in the nesting box. I’m sure some of them have been eaten, hoping it’s only been ones that already had damage. We have 4 newer chickens 1 roo and 3 pullets 20 weeks old living with them. Wondering what might be causing the lack of laying and if you think the newer chickens would be eating the eggs? Recently we bought some ceramic eggs to try and deter from eating but still have had some issues with egg remincse in the box.

Also we just found a egg in the run which is a darker egg and slightly smaller, wondering if one of the hens just started laying again and if it’s normal for the first egg after a pause to be different. We have a SLW new one but don’t think she’s laying yet.

Thanks sorry for the confusing post.

 

[ChicNmom]

The 20 week olds are about to start. Their eggs will be smaller and possibly found in random places until they get the hang of it.

My girls are slowing down. They usually start to molt in September and occasionally a little earlier.

You can take a mostly intact egg shell and sort of fill it with soapy water and leave it in a nest box. I did this after collecting the morning eggs. It only took a few times for whichever ones were eating eggs to stop.

Do you have some higher protein feed available?

Is one getting picked on and staying in the coop? That also happened to me and that hen was eating eggs because she didn't want to leave the safety of the coop until we fixed the problem.

 

[Thomaswgordon]

The 20 week olds are about to start. Their eggs will be smaller and possibly found in random places until they get the hang of it.

My girls are slowing down. They usually start to molt in September and occasionally a little earlier.

You can take a mostly intact egg shell and sort of fill it with soapy water and leave it in a nest box. I did this after collecting the morning eggs. It only took a few times for whichever ones were eating eggs to stop.

Do you have some higher protein feed available?

Is one getting picked on and staying in the coop? That also happened to me and that hen was eating eggs because she didn't want to leave the safety of the coop until we fixed the problem.

Thanks for the info! I wasn’t sure about the one SLW laying just cause she isn’t squatting and is just starting to get red comb/wattles. The other two are OE and still underdeveloped comb annd wattles. All of the newer ones had been stuck inside the coop up until the last day or two due to the older ones bullying. They’re finally all getting alongish and moving around freely.

We feed them all flock raiser crumble which I think is pretty good protein level with supplement oyster shell.

Fingers crossed now that they’re all out and about that the egg eating subsides and they start laying more. I want 2-4 eggs per day again!

 

[FrostRanger]

If you suspect egg eating, I'd make sure they have oyster shell available free choice and feed them a feed with more protein. I'd shoot for one with 20%. Often egg eating is symptom of some sort of nutritional deficiency or health issues that cause thin shelled eggs. You can also place fake eggs in the nest box, that way if a bird is indeed trying to break open an egg, she won't get very far since the fakes are much harder

 

[Thomaswgordon]

If you suspect egg eating, I'd make sure they have oyster shell available free choice and feed them a feed with more protein. I'd shoot for one with 20%. Often egg eating is symptom of some sort of nutritional deficiency or health issues that cause thin shelled eggs. You can also place fake eggs in the nest box, that way if a bird is indeed trying to break open an egg, she won't get very far since the fakes are much harder

Thank you! They do have access to oyster shell and our feed is 20% protein. And we just recently put the fake eggs in

 

[Thomaswgordon]

So the last couple days we’ve gotten those similar eggs in size and color and I just found one of our newer ones in the box… it’s supposed to be an olive Egger but with color of feathers and egg I think it’s just a black copper maran. We did put soap in one broken egg and I think so far it’s helped some.