Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens (53 page)

MOLTING SEQUENCE

In full molt, feathers are renewed in sequence, starting with the head and gradually working toward the tail, with some areas molting simultaneously.

Each newly emerging feather is covered in a thin sheath of keratin that comes off the pinfeather when the chicken preens. You may not notice these sheaths, except on the chicken’s head and neck, where the bird can’t reach with its beak. Eventually, these sheaths fall off or get scratched off by a claw. A tame or pet chicken would appreciate your help removing the hard-to-reach keratin sheaths by gently scraping with your fingers, rubbing the feathers in the direction of their growth with a damp cloth, or lightly misting with a spray of plain warm water followed by gentle wiping with a dry terry cloth.

After your hens molt their feed efficiency will improve, their eggs will be larger, and egg quality will be better than at the end of the previous laying period. On the other hand, they won’t lay quite as well as they once did, and egg quality will decline faster than during the previous laying period.

The number of eggs a hen lays and their size, shape, and internal quality — as well as shell color, texture, and strength — may be affected by a variety of things, including environmental stress, improper nutrition, medications, vaccinations, parasites, and disease.

Physical problems, developmental challenges, disease infections and everyday upsets your layer may be experiencing sometimes can be detected by closely examining her eggs.

Bloody shells
sometimes appear when pullets start laying before their bodies are ready, causing tissue to tear. Other reasons for blood on shells include excess protein in the lay ration and coccidiosis, a disease that causes intestinal bleeding. Cocci does not often infect mature birds, but if it does, you’ll likely find bloody droppings as well as bloody shells.

Chalky shells or glassy shells
occasionally appear due to a malfunction of the hen’s shell-making process. Such an egg is less porous than a normal egg and will not hatch but is perfectly safe to eat.

Odd-shaped eggs or wrinkled eggs
may be laid if a hen has been handled roughly or if for some reason her ovary releases two yolks within a few hours of each other, causing them to move through the oviduct close together. The second egg will have a thin, wrinkled shell that’s flat toward the pointed end. If it bumps against the first egg, the shell may crack and mend back together before the egg is laid, causing a wrinkle.

Weird-looking eggs
may be laid by old hens or maturing pullets that have been vaccinated for a respiratory disease. They may also result from a viral disease. Occasional variations in shape, sometimes seasonal, are normal. Since egg shape is inherited, expect to see family similarities. If you do your own hatching, select hatching eggs only of normal shape and size for your breed.

Thin shells
may cover a pullet’s first few eggs or the eggs of a hen that’s getting on in age. In a pullet, thin shells occur because the pullet isn’t yet fully geared up for egg production. In an old biddy, the same amount of (or less) shell material that once covered a small egg must now cover the larger egg laid by the older hen, stretching the shell into a thinner layer.

Shells are generally thicker and stronger in winter but thinner in warm weather, when hens pant. Panting cools a bird by evaporating body water, which in turn reduces carbon dioxide in the body, upsetting the bird’s pH balance and causing a reduction in calcium mobilization. The result is eggs that are thin shelled. Thin shells also may be due to a hereditary defect, imbalanced ration (too little calcium or too much phosphorus), or some disease — the most likely culprit being infectious bronchitis.

Soft shells or missing shells
occur when a hen’s shell-forming mechanism malfunctions or for some reason one of her eggs is rushed through and laid prematurely. Stress induced by fright or excitement can cause a hen to expel an egg before the shell is finished. A nutritional deficiency, especially of vitamin D or calcium, can cause soft shells. A laying hen’s calcium needs are increased by age and by warm weather (when hens eat less and therefore get less calcium from their ration). Appropriate nutritional boosters include a calcium supplement offered free choice and vitamin AD&E powder added to drinking water three times a week.

Soft shells that are laid when production peaks in spring, and the occasional soft or missing shell, are nothing to worry about. If they persist, however, they may be a sign of a serious viral disease, especially when accompanied by a drop in production.

A chalky egg (right) occasionally appears as a quality-control glitch in a hen’s reproductive system.

A shell may become wrinkled if for some reason it cracks before the hardening process is complete (left). An occasional misshapen egg (right) is no cause for concern, but a hen that typically lays odd-shaped eggs will pass the trait on to her offspring.

Broken shells
often result when a thin or soft shell becomes damaged after the egg is laid. Even sound eggs may get broken in nests that are so low to the ground, the chickens are attracted to scratch or peck in them. Hens and cocks may deliberately break and eat eggs if they are bored or inadequately fed. Boredom may result from crowding or from rations that allow chickens to satisfy their nutritional needs too quickly, leaving them with nothing to do.

If your coop is small and well lit, discourage nonlaying activity in nests by hanging curtains in front to darken them. To allay a hen’s suspicions about entering a curtained nest, either cut each curtain into hanging strips or temporarily pin up one corner until the hens get used to the curtains.

Hens may break eggs inadvertently. Such accidents commonly occur if nests contain insufficient litter, eggs are collected infrequently enough to pile up in
nests, or nests are so few that two or more hens have to crowd into the same nest at the same time. Sometimes timid birds seek refuge by hiding in nests, and their activities may break previously laid eggs.

Too few eggs being laid can result from so many different causes you practically have to be Sherlock Holmes to determine the reason. For starters, you may have the wrong hens. Although production varies among individuals, strains, and breeds, if you want to collect lots of eggs, you need hens that have been developed for egg production.