Chickens carry small eggs: reasons for what to do

You have brought the egg breed of chickens and relied on the high profits from the sale of this useful product, and your ryaba lays eggs that look like peas. What's the matter? 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, some of which 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.

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 hens, and such experiments are far from always 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 deliberately create conditions for young birds that are opposite to those that stimulate egg production (especially since some egg breeds are prone to anomalously early egg production).

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 hen during its productive period first increases 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 that 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). Production of the production of these breeds weighs an average of 60 grams and even more.

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 at all, 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.

Foreign body

On the one hand, this is the simplest cause of a sharp decrease in egg size in terms of diagnostics.If, in addition to the small size, 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 fell into the egg-laying channel 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 (a 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, the 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.

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, the hens of the egg breed are particularly affected by this disease.

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.

It has been noticed, moreover, that other factors associated with the content of poultry are sometimes caused by salpingitis, in particular, lighting in the coop, compliance with the temperature regime, cleanliness, drafts, etc. Thus, the case of a veterinarian is to make a diagnosis and prescribe treatment, but in order to deal with 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.

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 shells.

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 food should not be too high-calorie, while the bird should receive enough calcium and the entire 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 fall into 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 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;

• 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, all livestock can be easily lost; this moment is important to keep in mind if the content of the hens implies walking in fresh air - in this case it is necessary 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 excess moisture along 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 bird population, and therefore, prevention of diseases involving the shredding of eggs.

To summarizeIf, for some reason, an adult and a healthy-looking hen has laid a very small egg, 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 (temperature, lighting, hygiene) in our house and ensure that the hens have a balanced diet.