My hens usually lay in between ligh and dark brown eggs. Today, I noticed the eggs were almost white. What causes this, does anyone know?
What causes chicken eggs to turn lighter in color?
The shell color can depend on what they eat. The most important thing is the egg inside. If the yolk is a darker yellow and firm. Sloppy yolks or pale yolks indicates poor diet. The outside color can change. Sometimes there may be spots on it as well. We have had eggs come out with very light shells sometimes too. Now if the shell is very fragile and breaks easily then they need more calcium.
What can help bring the calcium up? Thank you, I was worried something was wrong. Now I`m not so worried!
You can feed them oyster shell, you should be able to find at your feed store. It helps to make their shells healthier and is good roughage for them. It is a little expensive, but will go a long way with the few amount of birds you have.
I am very impressed at all you do chickenlover at your young age. You are an inspiration. Keep it up. Your parents must be extremely proud of you.
I have a 10 year old granddaughter and while she "used to love the farm" I could never imagine her hunting or doctoring hens. Thumbs up to you kiddo :)
Kathy
Also, depending upon the breed of chicken, the eggs get lighter as the longer they lay and then start over with darkest eggs at the beginning of the next laying season. My marans are like that.
Yes, oyster shell is good. You can also give your chickens buttermilk. It has a decent amount of calcium and they love it. It is also good for the immune system especially in baby birds.
Giving buttermilk to our chickens???? Never happen!!! It wouldn't get that far. Both DH and I love our buttermilk.
I remember when I was about 7 or 8 years, my mother sent me to a farm down the road to get her and me some buttermilk. They sold it in quart cones for a nickel, all you could drink. I would get me a quart, drink it, and then get Mom and me another quart to carry home. Love it, love it, love it.
I remember giving sour cream to my chicks when I was a little kid. They wold pick it off my fingertips and seemed to love it :-)
MollyD
Granny-goody I can just see you fighting them for buttermilk :) Get away, its MINE!
Chickens love buttermilk, sour cream, yogurt and even milk.
My brothers dream is to have an organic chicken farm. He studied and studied all about natural stuff for chickens and one of the things he has told me is to give babies buttermilk to build up the immune system. You can also give chickens cayenne pepper when they are sick and it will help them get better. My sister had a rooster that was almost dead from fowl pox. She gave it some cayenne pepper water and he pulled out of it and lived.
We had a rooster that got too cold and couldn't crow. He sounded rather conjested. I gave him cayenne pepper in his water and by the next day he was crowing like normal. Not sure if that was good or not since he loves to crow, if you know what I mean.
We have one like that..he thinks he was put on this earth to crow. He crows day and night. But we have another that has just found out he can crow (he is almost a year old). He started crowing tonight in my ear. He was on the top roost where my old RIR usually stays. The RIR was on the floor of all things. So I don't know what's going on with the rotation of roosters. The RIR is a pet. My brother told me about birds liking cayenne pepper. Before he died, he used to send us an oatmeal box filled with hot peppers. Him and his wife had quite a few birds including macaws and parrots. They told me that those birds love hot peppers and to give them to the chicks. So, I have been doing that.
But, THEY AIN'T GETTING MY BUTTERMILK!!!!! ;o))
I am extremely proud of my daughter. At 4 years old her great grandpa had chickens and was introduced to them. Then last year a 4-H project of 25 broiler chicks soon became a research project and an addiction. Now dad and I are having to come up with some sort of "really cool" chicken coop before the next 25 broiler chick project begins in August. Any ideas on what we need to build would sure be appreciated! Thank you to all of you who are helping inspire my daughter's love for her chicks! God Bless!
Sincerely,
chickenlover12's mom
you could try building a hoop coop. These work especially good for broilers that will only be around for a little while. Although many people use them year round. I just built one and it was easy to do by myself. you can google hoop coops or if you want I can share my plans with you. It was fairly inexpensive to build and seems to be very sturdy.
Sheila
P.S. I have a 4 year old chicken addict also.