by Pajarita » Mon Apr 02, 2018 9:18 am
Well, for one thing, I never recommend giving them eggshells [too sharp and too full of crap as the chemicals that the poor layers eat all end up in there and no vitamin D3!]. Pellets 'should' provide enough D3 and calcium but I've know birds that got eggbound on them so I don't really know if the bio-availabilty of calcium and D3 in them is high enough for laying hens. As to a solar schedule in a climate that has 6 months of way too short days... well, I don't know if that is actually healthy for a bird that comes from a subtropical climate but there is little you can do about it except maybe try to 'balance' things out a bit with a 'fake' dawn and dusk. It's hard work changing the schedule every two weeks and it never works the same as a real solar schedule but it might be worth trying.
When was the last time she had complete bloodwork and was it normal? Because if she is not eating too much protein or fat, she is not a chronic layer and she is getting enough D3 and calcium, she needs to have bloodwork and a full body XRay to see what is going on there.