Assorted poultry question New question, page 4

[Rebecka]

ah.. that could explain it then. She was hatched April 12th of this year. I knew that eggs without shells are not uncommon in young birds. I was more concerned that there were two.. at once.

 

[Beekissed]

I could hurt one of my girls for doing this ? I go to great lengths to make sure my girls have the best of everything. No less than I would do for someone who lived in the house with me. Yeah, I know there are a lot of them. Todays head count produced 28 buff hens ( the older ones) 2 old buff roosters, 3 painted wyndotte roosters, 3 barred rock roosters , 2 RIR roosters and 117 RIR hens.

Don't get me wrong.. I love my roos too. I am just starting to look at winter feed ( we just started the worm beds in the barn for our girls, but that will be another thread) overall 'yard sanity' and wintering space.

The buffs and the reds will be separated by this time next week and lord providing , the meat rabbits will have their own space too. I have a whole lotta irons in the fire!

I really like the idea of not invading my girls. Don't get me wrong, I will if I have to, but if I could hurt them for doing so, I would want some hands on instruction. Beekissed, I swear I am not 'chickening out"

I know you folks don't know me well and all....but...do you really think I would do this if it hurt one of my chickens? Just to find out if they are laying? Really???? I've been raising chickens for a long time now and never intentionally hurt a bird yet.

C'mon!

Farm, I've tried the pelvic bone thing and have found it wrong many times....some birds are just built different and the wideness of the pelvic chamber can change when they are laying but on some birds they just don't change enough to tell for sure. Much to my chagrin, I have culled some good layers by using that method...found them full of eggs in all levels of production.

Also have found the coloring of the legs, combs, beak, etc. to be just as faulty. You may use these methods and you can be right some of the time...but the only foolproof method I've found in all these years has been this one~as distasteful as it may sound.

Trust me, I wouldn't be anal probing chickens if I didn't feel it was necessary. :/ I'm not recommending you ram your fingers up a chicken willy-nilly...I'm talking about a gentle examination.

Merle was correct...if an egg can come out, a woman's finger can go in. I've only had one eggbound hen in all my years of raising chickens and she was an ancient Leghorn that layed enormous eggs and had an irregular laying cycle. I didn't have to examine her in this way to determine that.