Candling Eggs

We’re raising chickens for eggs, and are also keeping a few roosters to breed. But I don’t know how to candle eggs, and I don’t want an unborn chicken in my omelet. So please help!

Amanda, New York

None of us would like to find something like that! Candling is really nothing more than shining a bright light through the egg to visualize its contents. The first important key is to work in a dark room. The next key is to have a light focused into a fairly small beam. Some people will use a small flashlight. If it’s a bright one, this can work pretty well. Another method that is commonly used is to make a box with a small hole cut into it. A hole about one inch in diameter or smaller should work well. The box needs to be able to handle some heat. Wire a light bulb inside this box and you’re set. A 40-watt bulb (or less) will work just fine. The actual candling can be done in a couple of different ways. If you’re looking at partially incubated eggs (to determine fertility/viability), it’s usually easiest to shine the light near the large end of the egg. You can usually see a spider web of blood vessels if there is a developing embryo.

If you’re looking for eating quality, as you mentioned, you can gently spin the egg in your hand. This will cause the yolk to move inside the egg, and you can see if any dark spots are present. The yolk will look like a darker shadow, and the chalazae may be visible. These are normal. After doing a few, you’ll get more familiar with normal vs. “abnormal.” Most spots of blood (or tissue) in the egg will not be developing chicks. They are from the hen’s body while the egg was being formed. Still, many people like to remove these. Finally, it can still be difficult to candle dark brown-shelled eggs.

Gathering eggs frequently (once a day or more if you can) and keeping gathered eggs cool will help a great deal to prevent a “surprise” in your omelet.

Feather Loss Raises Many Questions

I enjoy reading your articles in Backyard Poultry. We have seven layers and one rooster. They live together in a covered pen 40' x 50' and a night-safe coop of 10' x 20' but there still seems to be a pecking order problem that gets pretty serious, as you can see in the attached pictures. What is this pecking order all about?

Jim & DeeAnn via E-mail

Missing feathers in this pattern almost certainly point to the rooster. During mating, the rooster will grab hold of the feathers behind the comb, and tread on the back of the female. This is exactly where the feathers are missing on these hens. Sometimes clipping the toenails of the rooster can help. Most likely, these are the “favorite” hens and he is mating them more often. It may also be that the hens themselves, or other hens, pick at the new feathers as they grow in, thus perpetuating the problem. Getting more hens might help, but I wouldn’t guarantee it. Fitting the hens with cloth “saddles” is a possibility. These used to be used for turkey hens, and they are still available through some mail-order poultry supply houses.

More suggestions for dealing with feather picking are given below.

Feather loss on birds has brought about more questions than any other topic. In this issue, Ron addresses a variety of common problems and offers some helpful answers.

I currently have 10 Rhode Island Reds—one rooster and nine hens. I have them in a fenced in lot approximately 8' x 16' with three laying boxes. Three of the hens are missing the feathers on their back and wing section. I noticed that the rooster and the other hens are pecking at these three hens. This is so bad that you can see even under the skin. Can you think of a reason for this? Someone told me that they needed protein. Any suggestions?

Tony & Sandy, Kentucky

You can try extra protein. In some cases, it will help. Unfortunately, in many cases, this is the natural “pecking order” of chickens. Contrary to what many of us would like to think, chickens are not really “nice” to each other. They will quite often harass the lowest member of the pecking order until it dies. If they are especially aggressive, they may move on to the next in line. Usually, this doesn’t occur as long as all the birds are healthy.

You can try trimming the chickens’ beaks so they are not so sharp. Taking the tip off won’t interfere with their ability to eat, but it can help with the feather pulling and pecking. You can also try coating the pecked areas with some commercial anti-pick lotions. There are a few different brands available.

I have a flock of about 45 Black Australorp laying hens. They are 15 months old. I did have five roosters with them, now I have two. They do not free range. They are fed commercial laying pellet scratch, and a variety of scraps.

My question is, almost all of the hens have lost their feathers on their backs near their tail. They are also now losing their feathers around their necks and some all the way from the base of the tail to the base of the neck. Also one of the roosters is now losing the feathers at the base of his tail. I initially thought that it was caused by having too many roosters.

I have also closely inspected for mites. The flock is clean. Can you please help me out in this area? They seem to be laying fine. They lay between 24 and 30 eggs per day. They have been laying steady since they started in October, 2005. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Erin via E-mail

We’ve had several questions about feather loss recently. In some cases, overly aggressive (or overly populous!) roosters are to blame. In a few cases, mites are sometimes to blame. Some, however, can’t be explained by these things.

Often, the other hens are pecking on the feathers. This is sometimes caused by an excess in energy in the diet. When lots of high energy “treats” such as cracked corn, or bread, etc. are given, this can cause some pecking. I have also seen where the hens would “groom” the male to the point where his feathers were very tattered. Chickens will often peck the lowest birds in the pecking order, too. These will often end up missing a lot of feathers, or worse. Feeding high fiber feeds, such as hay, oats, or even root vegetables (turnips, etc.) have been used to dilute the energy of the diet. Some of these also probably give the chickens something else to peck at. Some even suggest hanging vegetables from the ceiling (within reach of the chickens) so they have to work to peck at them.

In some cases, it is probably just normal wear and tear on the feathers. High-producing hens put a lot of nutrients into laying eggs, and that often comes at the expense of feathers. The best producing hens often look very tough, while the “prettiest” hens aren’t laying many eggs.

Finally, and I suspect that may be what is happening in the second case, some hens go through a sort of slow, long-term molt. They often lose feathers around their neck and tail, yet continue to lay eggs. It’s probably not an unhealthy situation, but it’s unsightly. There may be a combination of molt and then feather-picking of the new feathers as they grow in.

Some people report improvement when feeding protein supplements such as cat food. This might help in some cases. In others, it will probably just take some time until the hen completes her molt.

Egg-Eating Hens

I have a couple of conundrums with my backyard flock. I have 14 laying hens, two each of several different breeds. Ten of the hens are a year older than the other four. They have established a pecking order with the older ones on top. The “dominant” hen has all of her feathers and is a beautiful white leghorn. Unfortunately, the further down the pecking order the fewer feathers each hen has. The poor pathetic Araucana at the bottom of the order has very few feathers to speak of. Any suggestions?

My other dilemma is that some of the hens are cracking and eating the eggs in the nest box. I have tried putting wooden eggs in the nests. I have also tried to gather eggs more often which helps some, but I can’t run out to the coop every time an egg is laid. My parents were both raised on farms and their suggestion/solution is to smash up the egg shells of the eggs we use in the house and give them back to the girls (hens) with other fruit and veggies. I have tried this but I don’t know if it really makes a difference. As far as nutrition goes they receive commercially prepared laying pellets (lower protein in summer), commercially prepared scratch occasionally, greens (pesticide free) from the yard frequently, and all the insects and worms my boys and they can catch.

We live in Salt Lake City, Utah, so the summers are hot and the winters are cold, I have done my best to minimize temperature extremes by heating the coop with a red heat lamp in the winter and a shaded yard in the summer. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions you have to offer.

Janel via E-mail

Several answers have been offered for possible treatments for feather pecking.

Regarding the egg-eating hens, this is a difficult habit to break once it has started. If one hen (or rooster) is the guilty party, it’s often better to remove that one before others pick up the habit. If that’s not an option, some people have tried wooden eggs, as you mentioned. Some have tried filling an egg with a less-than-desirable substance (hot sauce, etc.) but this is probably more effective for mammalian predators. It’s doubtful that a chicken tastes much of this. I doubt that it is a nutritional deficiency, unless they are calcium deficient. Laying hens should have access to a calcium source (oyster shell, limestone, etc.) at all times.

Darkening the nest, such as by hanging a cloth over the front, can sometimes help. Some people have gone to the extreme of designing roll-away nests so the eggs roll out of the reach of the offending eater.

Offering fruits and vegetables (especially high-fiber items) might distract them from the eggs by giving them something else to peck on.

Unusual Egg Shapes Make Conversation Pieces

Attached are two pictures of eggs from two different Rhode Island Red hens we have.

Egg 1 has a darker part shell on the bottom of the egg and this happens with almost every egg she is laying. And this morning I found one of her eggs, I’m almost sure it was hers, without the shell, just the membrane holding the yolk and white together.

If you raise enough laying hens, you are bound to find some unusual shaped eggs along the way.

Egg 2 is from a hen we separated and had inside our garage, because it was the rooster’s favorite hen and she had no more feathers on her back and a wound under her wing. This “umbilical cord”-egg only happened one time so far and she is laying normal eggs again.

They are both a little over one year and five months of age and I feed them layer feed and some cracked corn. they have free run of the yard all the time. They also get oyster shell, but not on a regular basis.

I hope you have seen such strange eggs before and can help.

Claudia, Tennessee

It’s amazing to see some of the interesting egg shells that occur! Egg 1 is a fairly common one to see. The darker part is actually a very thin section of shell, so the “darkness” from the liquid egg inside is showing through. You can compare this to ice on a frozen lake, and when it gets thin enough that you can see the water below, it looks very dark. Allowing oyster shell free choice might improve this, or it may be that this particular hen just produces poor quality egg shells. Generally, oyster shell should be available to the hens at all times, so they can eat as much of it as they’d like.

The second egg is not so easy to explain. Strangely shaped eggs such as this happen occasionally, and I don’t really know what causes it. A virus that causes infectious bronchitis can cause misshapen eggs, but this is usually a more permanent thing and you’d see it more consistently. It’s possible that the wound under her wing might be associated, but that would be difficult to test. I don’t think it is anything to worry about, and it definitely produced a conversation piece!

Calcium In Layer’s Diet

In the Aug./Sept., 2006 issue there was the article about making your own feed.

It was very interesting, but sounds too complicated for me. I do let my chickens run free during the day, and get a commercial feed also.

I grind up my eggshells and mix with my coffee grounds and put this in my flowerbeds. I see the chickens eating the shells. My question is, are the eggshells as good for them as oyster shells are?

Sometimes I find that my chickens have broken and eaten their own eggs, and shell. What is the reason they do this?

Anita, Tennessee

Feeding the eggshells back to the chickens certainly won’t hurt them. There is some evidence that the particle size of the calcium carbonate can affect shell quality. Larger particles (rather than ground calcium) have been shown to produce stronger eggshells. If the eggshells are their only source of calcium, you may not want to crush them very finely, but I still don’t think you’ll notice a problem.

You’ll want to avoid having them break and eat their own eggs, however. This can be a bad habit, and a difficult one to stop once it starts. Often, it starts with weak egg shells, or nests without adequate cushioning material, and then one or a few chickens develop a “taste” for eggs. They will break eggs and more will discover them. Wood shavings, straw, or even outdoor carpeting can be used to line the nests. Frequent egg gathering is also a good idea. This is definitely a situation where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

Irritating Scaly Mites

I have bantys and chuckers that run free on our farm yard and when they get older they get a growth on their legs that looks like tree bark and must hurt them to walk because they show it. What is it and how do we cure it? Thank you for your help.

John, Wisconsin

This is probably scaly leg mites. The tiny little mites burrow under the scales of the legs and feet. The waste they produce (and probably some scab material from the bird) cause the scales to push up and give the tree bark appearance you mentioned. Fortunately, this is pretty easy to treat, assuming you can catch the birds. Just apply some petroleum jelly on the affected areas and rub it in well. This will suffocate the mites. You may need to retreat after 10 days or so. This should get rid of them. It will take a while for the scales to go back down, but they should eventually return to normal.

I enjoy Backyard Poultry and find it both enjoyable and educational.

I have raised chickens my entire life. For the most part, they free range. The only time they are confined is at night or occasionally when we are dealing with a fox or hawk. I have about 25 bantams and a couple of Rhode Island Reds. Our bantams are always bothered with scaly leg mites. The big chickens are never affected with this condition. I treat the bantams periodically with Ivermectin and this works but it’s a real nuisance trying to catch them all and administer one drop to each chicken. If I let it go too long, their feet get sore and their toes get inflamed. Someone told me that dipping the chickens’ feet and legs in vegetable oil will smother mites, but I have not had much luck with this treatment. This too can be difficult. Do you have any suggestions? Could the Ivermectin be put in the water and if so, how much per quart of water? Where do the mites come from and why do they only affect the bantams?

Sandie, Tennessee

Scaly leg mites seem to be a recurring problem. It is interesting that different chickens seem to have more resistance to them than others do. Could there be any environmental differences among your birds? Different roosting areas? Different exposure to wild birds? Some travelling to shows while others do not? There is definitely evidence of varying resistance among genetic strains, so it’s possible that you won’t find any environmental differences. As stated in response to the previous question, I like to use petroleum jelly instead of vegetable oil. It is more viscous, so it stays on the tissue longer, so it’s better at suffocating the mites. Some permethrin based sprays may work to treat these mites, as well. Ivermectin will probably work, but it is not approved for use in or on poultry. There are no published directions for use, withdrawal times, etc. If you are not using the birds for consumption, or are only using them for your own use, you can find information on the Internet about usage. I believe some people do put it in the water and administer it that way. At least some of the Ivermectin products are oil-based, so I’m not sure how well they will dissolve in the water. Regarding where the mites come from, most likely they are either coming from wild birds or from exposure to other chickens that have them. It is also possible that you are never quite killing all of them on the bantams, so the few that survive just keep multiplying until you notice a problem again.

An Egg Within An Egg

A few years ago, I became interested in raising chickens, more so like a hobby. I would start with 50 chicks from the hatchery. This last batch started laying in March.

I have taken great pride in caring for my chickens; by feeding them the proper food and keeping their quarters clean of litter. Now they are producing nice big brown eggs.

One day I decided to boil some eggs to pickle. After peeling one I noticed it was extra hard, and I could see some brown showing through. A small brown hard shell egg was embedded within the big egg with the white all around.

I have done a lot of research, no one seems to know, nor have seen an egg like this. (I have frozen the egg to keep.) I feel this is a very rare occasion. I would greatly appreciate any information, and your point of view on this matter.

Leonard, West Virginia