Egg advice?

Hello, i wonder if anyone could offer some advice.
Im new to chicken keeping and have had my 4 rescued battery hens about a month now and they have been laying very well.
Tgen today i found this, (see photo) the egg shell is like a wet paper bag?! I would think this could be a calcium deficiancy but A) I've been giving them oyster shell from the start, and
B) why would this happen now, after a month of perfectly normal eggs?

It can happen randomly for simply no reason at all. With older hens there are occasional misfires in the system and this egg simply did not spend enough time in the shell area of the system to get one.
I would not worry to much unless it becomes common.

I have a hen that is 6 now and has NEVER been able to put a proper shell on the egg. Yes most would say to cull her but they are more pets to me then production hens.

LozzieGP said:

Hello, i wonder if anyone could offer some advice.
Im new to chicken keeping and have had my 4 rescued battery hens about a month now and they have been laying very well.
Tgen today i found this, (see photo) the egg shell is like a wet paper bag?! I would think this could be a calcium deficiancy but A) I've been giving them oyster shell from the start, and
B) why would this happen now, after a month of perfectly normal eggs?

Click to expand...

Welcome to BYC! Glad you joined the flock! To try and answer this I will have to ask a few questions. What do you feed them as a base feed? Please post a picture of the nutrition label. How often do you feed oyster shells? Have you checked the feces for worms and your birds for bugs? Nutrition label hopefully will have the nutrition like this

Hi and welcome - you have some great responses already, so I'll just say a big hello!

All the best

CT

Welcome to BYC! I'm glad you joined us!

When you rescued them were they checked for worms, lice, mites. I would think all that was ignored when before you got them. You could also post on the "chicken behaviors and egg laying." thread and see what they come up with.

Thanks for all the replies!
They have been wormed since being with me, dont seem to have lice or mites but im using a powder in the coop just in case.
Ive attached a photo of the nutrition label, they are on layers mash at the minute as its recommended to start with as they are used to it from the battery farm.
I had two perfectly normal eggs today.
I sprinkle the oyster shell in with their feed most days, its good for digestion too i thought? Should it be in its own hopper ?

LozzieGP said:

Thanks for all the replies!
They have been wormed since being with me, dont seem to have lice or mites but im using a powder in the coop just in case.
Ive attached a photo of the nutrition label, they are on layers mash at the minute as its recommended to start with as they are used to it from the battery farm.
I had two perfectly normal eggs today.
I sprinkle the oyster shell in with their feed most days, its good for digestion too i thought? Should it be in its own hopper ?

Click to expand...

You shouldn't need oyster shells with that high of a calcium. Calcium for a laying hens is 3.0%-4.0% I find the best calcium ratio is a 3.4% to 3.8%. Oyster shells can help with digestion since they are hard but with that high of a calcium it can damage the kidneys. If you want to improve digestion they need some grit or to be have dirt in their run so they can eat the rocks to help digest. Grit doesn't have much for nutrients. I don't use grit; my chickens have access to pebbles. It could be just a freak thing than.

I keep the oyster shell in a separate dish that they have constant access to so they only eat it when they need it. Your layer feed looks balanced from my limited knowledge. I am thinking your soft egg was a fluke.

21hens-incharge said:

I keep the oyster shell in a separate dish that they have constant access to so they only eat it when they need it. Your layer feed looks balanced from my limited knowledge. I am thinking your soft egg was a fluke.

Click to expand...

That's my guess. If they're clean from parasites and the feed has plenty of calcium and it has vitamin D so it must be a fluke.