Why do chickens carry eggs without shell? What to feed the hens in layers at home

Poultry farming can be called an exciting and profitable enterprise, while for an inexperienced owner of a private farmstead there lies a certain deceptiveness. Everything seems very simple: you need to buy chickens, feed, drink, and everything - fresh and healthy eggs in huge quantities are guaranteed. In practice, however, there are many questions.

Why is the bird inactive? Why egg laying, is there a crack? Why do chickens carry eggs without shell? It should be understood that any deviation from the norm should be regarded as a signal, the chicken can not come up and tell the owner what exactly does not suit her. Therefore, the owner's mindfulness and adequate reaction with a quick correction of the situation will be the key to the success and effectiveness of the private farmstead.

Evaluation of the quality of chicken eggs

A quality chicken egg should be of regular shape, with an even and moderately strong shell without tubercles and depressions. Contrary to the common misconception, the color of the shell and the brightness of the yolk have nothing to do with quality, it all depends on the breed of the bird and on the saturation of the diet with carotenoids, which just tint the yolk in saturated colors.

But the very condition of the yolk, protein and shell often indicates the health of the bird. If chicken eggs are found in the poultry without a shell, this clearly indicates an unfavorable situation, and it should be solved as soon as possible. Unlike minor deviations, such as small or two-yolk eggs, this is an alarming sign.

Why chickens carry eggs without shell

If an egg with a defective shell or without it appeared once, and then everything is all right again, this can be considered an accident. Perhaps this is a failure in the laying hen's body, which originated for non-essential reasons and has leveled off on its own. However, if soft eggs regularly appear in the hen-house, it can be considered a system and measures need to be taken.

The most harmless and easily corrected option is the error of the diet. Chickens, as a rule, signal about the lack of calcium and trace elements in food - they begin to peck their own eggs, because they instinctively seek to fill the deficit. The attentive owner will adjust the diet even at the stage of cleft, not leading to the appearance of eggs without shell. However, such a defective egg-laying can indicate diseases, genetic disorders, and also suffered severe stress.

The usual ration of chicken on a private farmstead

If it is a question of primitive poultry farming, when the owner does not ask questions about the correct diet, the number of birds is minimal, it feeds food waste from the owners table. The maximum that the owners propose is the periodic top dressing with grain. If the chicken has taken an egg without a shell, this is corrected by the introduction of chalk, shellfish, and pounded eggshell into the food .

At a certain stage, when it is no longer "five chickens and a cockerel", and at least two or three dozen well-developed birds, it is easier and more profitable to keep the bird on mixed feed. In this case, there is no need for additives, and waste from the kitchen serves more as an option for additional nutrition. If the problems persist when feeding the poultry with specialized compound feed for layers, this indicates a disease. Depending on the number of affected birds, it is necessary to call a veterinarian or update the livestock of the house by the method of selective culling.

"The hen at will walks": why is this an argument?

When buying home eggs can often be heard as a positive factor that "the chicken by will walks". On buyers, this acts as an argument in favor of buying just such eggs. And in this there is a share of truth, albeit insignificant.

In some cases, it is simply not advisable to speculate on what to feed laying hens at home, the bird is only treated with grain so that it returns to the chicken coop. In this case, the livestock is on free grazing, the diversity of the diet of the bird in this case is simply amazing. Problems with the shell with this approach should not be, because the calcium of the chicken is obtained by pecking snails, and the full value of nutrition in free grazing in nature can not be questioned.

However, this is possible in extremely rare cases - chickens can be stolen, there are always predators who do not mind eating delicate meat. The free-range paddock of a domestic chicken is, of course, an argument: the eggs will be tasty and healthy. Another question is that in the overwhelming majority of cases this is a small lie of the seller.

Ready mixed feed or natural food?

At a certain stage of the formation of a large homestead farm this question becomes rhetorical. Natural feeds are good, but sooner or later the owner will start choking on the amount of work, wondering why the hens are carrying eggs without a shell or, worse, fall on their paws. It is simpler and more logical to transfer the poultry house to a ready balanced feed enriched with calcium, potassium, phosphorus and the necessary trace elements. Mixed feed is more expensive only in terms of naked figures, but it saves time, the bird is less sick, the egg-laying is optimized, the fall of the young is significantly reduced. If it's a regular chicken coop, where several chickens live, then you can do with improvised means.

How to make a complete diet for several layers?

For an ordinary family that does not plan to trade eggs, it is enough to have a modest hen house, up to a dozen inhabitants. In this case, the question of what to feed the laying hen at home, often comes into contact with such a notion as wasteless production. Of course, in the diet of birds should be whole grains, but food waste from the kitchen, too, can be a valuable addition to the chicken dinner. As a mineral and vitamin supplement, you can purchase a quality premix, which is, in fact, a ready-made complex of biologically active substances, which is used in the production of mixed fodders.

In the absence of premixes, it is worth adding to the diet of layers: crushed egg shell, cottage cheese, meat-and-bone flour, chalk, shellfish. Due to this, eggs will be of proper quality, and the bird's health will improve significantly. It is important to understand that when the calcium and micronutrient deficiencies are deficient, the bones of the bird first suffer, the scarce substances for the shell come from the bones. That is, regularly appearing soft eggs - this is an alarm, in the body of the chicken already serious problems.

Seasonal changes in the diet

On a private farmstead, the bird's diet undergoes significant changes depending on the season. It is at the end of winter or early spring that eggs appear without a shell. What to do in this case and how to avoid such a problem?

The lack of vitamin D is compensated for by special additives, it is possible to mix fish oil, meat and bone meal into the food. It is extremely important to supply the bird with vitamins, add hay and vegetables to feed. Chickens eagerly consume silage, and if you harvest nettle and alfalfa brooms, then in the winter it will be a pleasant addition to the ration. In warm, clear days, you can see that the chickens are sunning themselves, trying to get vitamin D.

If the chickens have the opportunity to walk outside the house, problems with the quality of eggs are observed less often. Birds instinctively look for food that is required at the moment. At the free-range, the ration of a hen is substantially enriched with protein foods, it eats worms, insects, slugs and snails. The usual grape snail is a protein complex in a wrapper made from high-quality calcium, so a walk for a chicken is a kind of gourmet tour, which only benefits her.

Diseases of birds that affect the quality of eggs

In addition to the lack of necessary substances in the feed, various diseases can also have an effect. However, the quality of food and here indirectly affects the result of egg production and product quality. Quite often the reason why chickens carry eggs without shells, is helminthiasis, viral diseases, then the whole poultry house suffers, and not selective layers. It can be mycoplasmosis, avian influenza, infectious bronchitis, and other diseases. To determine the reasons it is recommended to invite a veterinarian, laboratory tests will be required. Often, as measures against diseases, it is necessary to completely eliminate the livestock, review sanitary requirements and re-form the coop in view of the needs of the bird.

Improvement of livestock house

If all chickens eat the same way, and defective eggs are carried by one or two birds, then this is a genetic problem, in such birds there can be a variety of malformations. In the household, it is necessary to regularly rejuvenate the number of laying hens, and if the hens carry eggs with soft shells with general well-being, these specimens are subject to culling.

Since the egg-laying peak in the chicken is observed for literally two, maximum three years, regular rejuvenation of the house is necessary in any case. In single cases of the emergence of a product with defects, one can not particularly question why eggs without a shell, just make the appropriate adjustments to the culling schedule. Treatment with serious material costs may be considered a more humane approach, but do not forget that agriculture is a pragmatic sphere of life, where sentiments are quite expensive in the material sense and spent on keeping animals and birds that do not bring profit simply Wasteful.