You have brought the egg breed of chickens and relied on high profits from the sale of this useful product, and your ryaba lays eggs that look like peas. What's the matter? Have you slipped a defective hen or are you doing something wrong? Is it possible to save the situation - let's understand!
First of all, remember: the causes of small eggs in a chicken can be several, and some of them are subject to correction, while others are not. In order not to torture ourselves and the bird, we will try to correctly make a "diagnosis", and there it will be easier to decide on the "treatment".
Age of chicken
As you know, egg breed chickens begin to rush somewhat earlier than meat. The first clutch can please you already on seventeenth week old chicken, but this does not mean that such eggs will look like ostrich eggs.
Important! The young hen may carry out the first laying already at 17 weeks of age, but until the bird reaches full sexual maturity, it will carry eggs not very large. It is possible to talk about puberty when the chicken reaches at least ¾ of the average weight of an adult bird, which usually happens by the end of the sixth month of life.
So, the age of the chicken is the first thing that determines the size of the chicken eggs, so novice farmers should not worry in vain. By the way, sometimes, in pursuit of profit, they are trying to artificially stimulate the egg production of laying hens, and not always such experiments are safe for the health of the bird. Knowing this, experienced poultry farmers do not simply resort to any tricks to let the young begin to nest as soon as possible, but consciously create conditions for young birds that are opposite to those that stimulate egg production (especially since some egg breeds of chickens are prone to anomalously early egg production).
Did you know? The smallest chicken egg weighed only 2.5 g, which is at least five times smaller than the average quail, and had a height of no more than 2 cm, which is also smaller than a quail egg. This discovery was discovered in his hen house by a Chinese hairdresser named Ho Daiou. The egg of the dwarf Bantama breed laid down, but the usual egg weight of this bird is 45 g. It is interesting that the Chinese had to ask for the tools to determine the exact size of the offspring in a jewelry store!
It is also important to understand that small testicles occur not only in too young, but also in too old chickens. In other words, the size of eggs in the same layer during its productive period increases first and then begins to decrease. Usually at the age of two, the hen already carries smaller eggs, and their number is also gradually declining.
Breed
Asking why your chickens carry small eggs, you also need to decide which breed you are talking about. In the description of any breed of chicken there is such a parameter as normal egg size. For example, for a white sultanka, 45 g is considered to be a normal weight, a little more than the testicles of Cochinchina are about 55 g.
If it is principally egg size for you, you should give preference to such breeds as leggorn (bred in the USA), highsex-brown (Dutch hybrid), iza-brown (bred in France), broken-brown (Germany), high-line ( USA), Ukrainian Ushanka, Russian white chicken, Minorca (Spain), Pushkin (RF). The production of these breeds weighs an average of 60 grams and even more.
Chickens of Amrox, Maran, Dominant and Wyandot breeds are characterized by good egg production.
So, the problem of small eggs can have two completely objective reasons - age of the chicken or features of the breed. In this case, nothing special needs to be done. But it happens that the “correct” in all respects chickens initially carry what is supposed to, but suddenly, for no reason, they begin to produce indecent fines instead of eggs corresponding to their age and breed. In this case, it is important to understand what is wrong with your birdie, since there may be several options.
Did you know? The biggest egg called the result of the "work" of chicken from Georgia: in 2011, she managed to tear down "testicle" weighing 170 g, and its dimensions were 8.2 cm * 6.2 cm. Thus, the hen pressed to second place the result of the British hen named Harriet - the weight of her unique egg was 163 g, but the height was 11.5 cm! However, a more impressive result was recorded in the Guinness Book of Records: in 1956, a chicken of the Leghorn breed carried a miracle weighing 454 g. In fairness, it should be noted that it consisted of two yolks and two layers of shell, all the same, their weight is impressive!
Foreign body
On the one hand, this is the simplest cause of a sharp decrease in egg size from the point of view of diagnosis. If, in addition to small sizes, there is no yolk in the chicken's egg, most likely the reason is that something that the bird's organism mistakenly took to be the yolk got into the layer's oviduct. As a rule, this “something” gets into the egg instead of the yolk, and there is, of course, no such product.
A normal feather can act as a foreign body, in this case a small egg is a single problem, which can be solved by itself (the foreign body enters the egg and is thus safely removed from the body). But if anzheltkovye small eggs turn into a system, you should show your hen to the vet, because the problem can be explained worms, and it is already dangerous for the health of your bird - as it is known, helminths feed on the same as the organism in which they live, taking away the necessary nutrients from it.
As a result, the chicken loses weight, its immunity is weakened, which can lead to serious diseases and even death. Moreover, some helminths in the course of their life emit toxic substances that are absorbed into the blood of birds and can also provoke various disorders.
Important! Symptoms of the presence of worms in chickens, in addition to small analt-free eggs, is also a change in the appearance and behavior of the bird: the hen becomes lethargic, gains weight poorly and loses its appetite. If you detect such signs, you should immediately consult a doctor and conduct the necessary research.
Unfortunately, in some cases it is necessary to solve a problem with a foreign body in the oviduct operatively, even if it is not connected with worms. Therefore, contact your veterinarian if small eggs without yolk appear often, should definitely.
Inflammation of the oviduct
This disease is called salpingitisand although it is dangerous for all breeds of chickens, layers of egg breed are affected by this disease especially often.
Important! Salpingitis is caused by a bacterium of the genus Staphylococcus. The disease is very dangerous for poultry. If no measures are taken, it is possible to lose all the livestock, so a visit to the veterinarian is necessary: an accurate diagnosis will help establish a blood test of a sick individual.
In addition to changes in egg size, inflammation of the oviduct at an early stage is characterized by an increase in body fat on the chicken's body. Later, the behavior of the bird changes - it looks exhausted, eats little, and just as little feces. If no action is taken at this stage, the bird dies. Causes of salpingitis in the hens can be very different. First of all, it is unhealthy diet. In particular, the disease can occur against a background of calcium deficiency, as well as vitamins A, B4, D and E with an excess of protein. In addition, oviduct inflammation sometimes occurs as a consequence of injuries, for example, strike or fall.
The third reason is the laying of eggs in too young age (we mentioned above that it is very dangerous to stimulate egg production in young chickens) or simply very large eggs that the hen cannot “squeeze out”, which leads to rupture of the oviduct. Another disease can also trigger the disease, for example, inflammation of the cloaca or some kind of infection.
Did you know? Birds are much more responsive to light than beasts. Nerve impulse from the eye is transmitted to the part of the brain that stimulates certain sex hormones. Thus, due to artificial regulation of the length of daylight, it is possible to both increase and decrease egg production.
It has been noted, moreover, that other factors associated with the content of poultry are sometimes caused by salpingitis, in particular, lighting in the hen house, compliance with the temperature regime, cleanliness, the presence of drafts, etc. Thus, the veterinarian’s case is to make a diagnosis and prescribe treatment, but in order to understand the causes, it is necessary to analyze many factors. Salpingitis is treated with antibiotics, but sometimes less radical measures are sufficient. It all depends on how quickly the problem is detected, and also on whether the impact on the bird of the negative factors that provoked the infection has been eliminated.
Find out what you need to do if your chickens are badly nestled.
Hormonal disbalance
Another possible reason for reducing the size of eggs in chicken - a hormonal failure. Fortunately, it does not occur very often. As in the case of a foreign body, in addition to the change in the size of the eggs, they may also lack the yolk, although this indicator is not mandatory. Moreover, in such cases, the chicken, by contrast, can lay eggs with two or more yolks (the chicks of them usually do not hatch). Another symptom of hormonal imbalance is eggs without shell.
Important! Hormonal failure can occur due to stress, ovulation disorders, as well as the result of improper operation of certain organs or systems. That is why, as in the case of inflammation of the oviduct, it is important to try to understand the origins of the problem, so as not to treat the effect instead of the cause.
Independently establishing the diagnosis in this case will not work, serious tests are necessary, especially since for correct treatment it is necessary to clearly establish which hormones are produced by the body in insufficient or, on the contrary, in an excess amount, and on this basis, prescribe treatment.
Prevention
If we discard questions related to age and breed, in order to prevent abnormal grinding of eggs in layers it is enough to observe the following conditions:
- proper nutrition: the feed should not be too high in calories, while the bird should receive enough calcium and the whole complex of vitamins (A, C, E, D, as well as the B group); fresh greens and mash must be present in the diet (chopped vegetables, grains and liquids - water or sour milk);
- lighting: The amount of light in the chicken coop directly affects egg production, so experienced poultry farmers make sure that the sun does not hit the house at all, so the light intensity can be adjusted to your liking. Artificial lighting is obligatory for laying hens anyway, because we want to see masonry all year round, and not only in spring and summer. With proper regulation of the length of daylight, egg production can be increased by almost 20%, for this purpose it is recommended to arrange light in the poultry house for ten hours a day or a little less by the beginning of the laying, and then every week to increase the lighting time by a quarter of an hour. So the chickens will create a "feeling of spring", and, therefore, the body will receive a command to reproduce. If salpingitis is diagnosed in a chicken, the length of the day during the treatment period should be reduced to nine hours;
Important! It is noticed that if a fight arises in the chicken coop or just a stir, a slight decrease in the intensity of illumination can calm the bird (it is also noted that blue lamps have a certain "sedative" effect). On the other hand, it must be borne in mind that in nature day does not replace the night suddenly, so you need to try to avoid abrupt shutdowns and, moreover, turn on the light - this can cause stress in the hens, and what it is fraught with, we said above.
- temperature condition: The optimum temperature for chickens is from +5 to +18 ° С; Both cold and intense heat can cause stress or illness (if the temperature rises above +38 ° C, you can easily lose all the livestock; this is an important point to keep in mind if the content of the hens implies walking in fresh air - in this case, you need to provide for a canopy so that the bird is not under the scorching sun). It is also very important that there are no drafts in the room;
- air humidity: conditions favorable for a bird are in the range of 60-70%; in order for excessive moisture with toxic gases to leave the premises, it is necessary to provide a ventilation system;
- purity: dry litter, timely removal of food residues and other hygienic requirements is a mandatory guarantee of the health of the poultry population, and therefore, the prevention of diseases involving the shredding of eggs.
To summarize If, for some reason, an adult and a healthy-looking chicken laid a very small egg for no reason at all, then this is not a reason to sound the alarm, but it’s still worth a closer look at such a layer. But if such cases continue, be sure to understand why this is happening.
However, most of the causes of this problem are eliminated by themselves, if we establish proper conditions in our house (temperature, lighting, hygiene) and provide the hens with a balanced diet.