When our sweet Buff Orpington, Daisy, was sick last summer (see “Daisy is Ill“), I was given some very practical advice by Brigitte Kessler-lichtensteiger, a chicken rancher in southern Ontario (and cousin-by-marriage to my niece). She suggested that I save and dry egg shells left over from cooking, grind or smash them, and feed them back to the hens. The extra calcium would strengthen their shells. I’ve been doing this every few weeks since August and I think it has made a difference. The shells of all the hens seem to be stronger and smoother.

Egg Shells Drying

After doing a little research, I found some material that supports Kessler-lechtensteiger’s theory here. “According to researchers at Mendel University, a hen must deposit 25 mg of calcium on the developing egg surface every 15 minutes during the 20-hour period in which the eggshell is formed. A prolific laying hen producing approximately 300 eggs per year will deposit 24 times more calcium into her eggs’ shells than the amount contained in her bones. With research like that, it is not a surprise that laying hens may need supplemental calcium even if they are being fed a nutritionally complete laying feed formula. Eggshells can provide that supplemental calcium.” I found this on eHow but is substantiated in other articles on the internet as well.

I confess that I am of Scottish descent and it is hard for me to waste anything. I’ve been putting egg shells in my garden compost for years and have been feeding my six hens oyster shells to supplement their calcium intake. Now, in addition to the oyster shells, I air dry egg shells for about a week or put them in a warm oven for 1/2 an hour. I then put the broken shells in a little food processor and give them a whirl. After drying, the shells break down easily so this only takes a minute or two. When I fill the chicken feeder, I sprinkle this powder in with the feed, and mix.

With laying hens having to produce so much calcium each day, it only makes sense that food high in this essential mineral will enhance the hens’ ability to produce strong shells and keep the little darlings healthy.

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Tillie at 16 Weeks

I’ve not had time to sit down and write. Our new labradoodle has kept me running. We have become “guardians” of a pretty little female Australian labradoodle named “Country Matilda Lil Miss Q” or “Tillie”. She’ll grow to be about 35 pounds. She’s already a great garden companion; content to be by my side wherever I go.

Someone told me not to get a “bird dog” like a Labrador retriever or pointer as they were “just too interested in chickens for their own good”. We looked into terriers but they are “diggers” I wasn’t sure our large garden would be compatible with a Norwich, Jack Russell, or Wheaten. Then I heard about an Australian labradoodle. The medium size multigen grows to 30-40 lbs and are calm (bred to be therapy and service dogs) and non-shedding. Yes, they come from bird dog descent so we’ll just have to see how that plays out.

Tillie is Curious; Hens are Cautious

Tillie is curious, suspicious, and more than a little interested in those “squawking” hens. When I hold our tamest girls, Tillie nuzzles them trying to determine if there is something edible under the fluffy feathers. When I let her into the run she follows them around using her senses to figure out what these strange creatures are. Gentle Daisy follows Tillie, carefully removing bits of straw from her coat.

Daisy Gently Picks Straw from Tillie's Coat

I’m not so unrealistic as to think I can trust this little birddog with my hens, but I hope that Tillie’s curiousity will blossom into some kind of tolerance for these beautiful birds.

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Several of you have written me concerned about Daisy the hen who had an egg break inside of her. Click here. I have been hesitant to give you an update until I could really see some progress. It is hard to know whether she truly has something wrong inside her where the egg is formed, or whether her problem is dietary.

Vitamins and Electrolytes for Farm Animals

I got some really good advice on how to treat her. It is difficult to treat a chicken that has a chronic problem with forming eggs. If it were possible, I’d have an hysterectomhy done on Daisy and just have her as a pet. Forget the eggs. But alas, I don’t want to put her through that, and to be honest, I don’t think it can be done.

Treating a dietary problem is the best option. Electrolytes were recommended. They are relatively inexpensive and are made for poultry and farm animals. The packaged powder contains electrolytes and vitamins. When we put Daisy back in the run with the other hens we treated the water with electrolytes. That means all the hens drank the solution and all of them showed a change in their energy level. It was like I had put the camera on high speed. They dashed from place to place and when Don and I sat in the run, they hopped on and off our laps, never really settling down. They looked, like I feel, when I’ve drunk too many cappuccinos. After a week we discontinues the electrolytes.

Ultra Egg Omega Supplement-Looks Like Daisy on the Cover

We were advised to continue making oyster shell available to the hens and to dry their eggshells when we cook with eggs, pulverize them, and add the powdered shells to their feed. I also bought a powdered supplement call “Omega Ultra Egg”. A quarter of a cup is to be sprinkled into their food each day. Tulip, the Ameraucana, loved it. The first day it was added, she scooped it up in her beak and gulped it down, leaving nothing for the other hens. She promptly suffered diarrhea from the rich supplement.

Daisy's Deformed Egg Alongside Tulip's Normal Green Egg

Daisy has layed one egg every three days for the past two weeks. The first three broke as she pushed them out. Then she began laying eggs that were intact but had deformed shells. Each egg that she has layed in the past week has appeared more and more normal. Does this mean that she is cured? I am hesitant to be too optimistic. She is acting normal, however, and that is good news. She once again scratches in the dirt, dust bathes, enjoys sitting in the sun, and sits on my lap in the evening. We hope that she will continue to strengthen and be with us for many years!

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Indoo.r Cam Focused on Nest Boxes

We’ve had people ask us how we put the images from a camera onto the website for public viewing. As novices, we found it challenging to do and even more difficult to explain. It has taken us awhile to write out a brief explanation of the process that we went through to make our images public and hope you will find it helpful.

We’ve written directions and put the explanation as a “page” or article so that the title will be permanently displayed across the top of the first page of our website. You will find the explanation under Hencam Tech Talk on the menu bar across the top.

I hope this will be of help to any of you wanting to embark on this journey. Please let us know if you have hencams so that we can see your completed project and visit your site.

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