soft shell eggs

[vboro farm girl]

Ok so I go out to clean the coop as I do everyday and I start spraying and I notice a soft shelled egg that had been busted hmmm... I take it out, continue spraying and there is another one and there are signs of another one I just didn't find the shell but there is yolk everywhere I give them some oyster shells in their feed mixture but I am just starting to get eggs as my chicks are about 20 weeks old, I am just curious is this normal?

 

[csaylorchickens]

Yep!
Happened I me as well and I freaked out and everyone assured me here that it was normal for the first month of Laying to have soft shell or no shell and only membrane eggs. I had one hen who laid a no shell egg and only
Membrane for a whole week! She finally started laying hard shell ones.
Just make sure they have layer feed and oyster shell for extra calcium.
Interestingly I found that my girls didn't like eating the shell in a container so I sprinkled some on the ground with scratch and they gobbled it up!

 

[vboro farm girl]

Yes I mix it in with their food every day but I am glad to hear its ok and I give them layer pellets daily with scratch grains and black oil sunflower seeds oh and plus they are free range I turn them out at dawn and they go in the coop at dark

 

[aart]

Curious what are you 'spraying' in the coop?

Ok so I go out to clean the coop as I do everyday and I start spraying and I notice a soft shelled egg that had been busted hmmm... I take it out, continue spraying and there is another one and there are signs of another one I just didn't find the shell but there is yolk everywhere I give them some oyster shells in their feed mixture but I am just starting to get eggs as my chicks are about 20 weeks old, I am just curious is this normal?

 

[vboro farm girl]

Water

 

[AV8RChick]

In addition to what was already suggested, I crush up a tums (calcium) and add it to their water when they have soft shelled eggs. They seem to like the flavor of the water and it helps solve the soft shell problem pretty quickly.

 

[aart]

Water

Well, better than some chemical...but really, it's best to keep the coop as dry as possible.

 

[vboro farm girl]

I try to keep it clean and it smells horrible if its not cleaned everyday I'm in the middle of making some modifications so I don't have to spray it with water because the ducks like to piddle in it and I am pretty sure its not healthy for them to do that so I am going to make the coop floor more accessible so I can scrape the poo out instead of spraying it with water

 

[aart]

I try to keep it clean and it smells horrible if its not cleaned everyday I'm in the middle of making some modifications so I don't have to spray it with water because the ducks like to piddle in it and I am pretty sure its not healthy for them to do that so I am going to make the coop floor more accessible so I can scrape the poo out instead of spraying it with water

Keeping it dry will reduce the odor...wet makes for stink.
Keeping ducks water out of coop will help.

Describe your set up in detail and folks can probably make some suggestions for improvement.

 

[vboro farm girl]

Ok so I have a 4 X 16 X 6 coop the top sction is the chicken coop the bottom is for the night duck enclosure my chickens free range during the day so this is just for roosting and laying