Eleven eggs from nine hens that already have a tentative appointment with the hatchet?
Yeah, okay, it’s a cheat. I collected eggs really early Saturday because I was afraid the wash would run, and then really late yesterday because I decided to bake bread early while it was cool. So they had closer to 30 hours than 24, and today’s take will probably be pitiful.
But still – it’s been a long time since there were that many eggs in the basket, is all. The quality of the eggs is also definitely up: The shells were getting so thin I had at least 10% breakage while I was feeding them nothing but pellets and sunflower seeds. Now they’re getting kitchen scraps by the bucketful. Some say the eggs have better flavor; that’s subjective and I don’t really see it myself but there is no getting around that the shells are much stronger. Beginning to think at least a small part of this Spring’s falloff in quantity had to do with diet more than age.
When we kept hens, we also provided crushed oyster shells…just had a small dish of them in the coop. They pick them up for their crops, and they dissolve, adding Calcium. Some people give the hens the empty eggshells. If you do, be sure they are thoroughly rinsed and crushed, otherwise you will find the hens eating their own eggs.
Mine will eat eggshells but none of them ever showed any interest in oyster shell.
Dark green leafy vegetables are a good source of calcium.
Jack