Thin eggs

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Roland Deschain

Roland Deschain

In the Brooder
Jun 4, 2015
47
4
24
yacolt,wa
Hi everyone, one of my BR hens is laying very thin and kind of pale eggs. They always have oyster shell and we also give them their egg shells. Besides her eggs she seems just fine, very active,eats and drinks just like all the girls. She is a very small hen with pretty big eggs,I don't know if that means anything... Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
 
I was about to ask the same thing. Sometimes older hen's shells can end up thinner and easier to break. I don't know if the fact that she is small and lays big eggs has anything to do with it, unless they are unusually big and she usually lays small eggs so that if she laid an extra large egg or double yolker they could end up having thin shells because the material it usually takes to cover her eggs has to be spread over a larger surface so it ends up thinner. If that makes any sense. Otherwise, does she eat the oyster shell and eggshells? Sometimes one of our hens are stubborn and won't eat it, then you can try mixing a little calcium powder or really finely crush oyster shell and put it on a special treat or something she likes to eat if you feel she isn't getting enough. Hope at least some of this will help you. Good luck.
 
If they have regular calcium (oyster shells), other things to check are

1) are they on a layer diet? (Is your food for laying chickens)
2) has there been any unusual stresses lately?
3) if she is younger or older, the eggs might be deformed

If none of this applies, start looking for other things that could have disturbed her. Is everything in your coop relatively clean? Does she have symptoms of disease (Discharge from eyes, losing feathers, ect.)? Is she getting bullied by other hens/roos? Look for things like that. If there is absolutely nothing wrong, it might be just a cold, or she might have worms or another disease. Check her feces for worms. (Also, this is just what I have read, because I just got my chicks 1 week ago, but this is accurate information from a lot of sources) Hope this helps!
 
Last edited:
Lil Peeps said:
I was about to ask the same thing. Sometimes older hen's shells can end up thinner and easier to break. I don't know if the fact that she is small and lays big eggs has anything to do with it, unless they are unusually big and she usually lays small eggs so that if she laid an extra large egg or double yolker they could end up having thin shells because the material it usually takes to cover her eggs has to be spread over a larger surface so it ends up thinner. If that makes any sense. Otherwise, does she eat the oyster shell and eggshells? Sometimes one of our hens are stubborn and won't eat it, then you can try mixing a little calcium powder or really finely crush oyster shell and put it on a special treat or something she likes to eat if you feel she isn't getting enough. Hope at least some of this will help you. Good luck.
Click to expand...

X2
 
Also, doing research can't hurt. There are many posts on BYC about this subject that have been discussed thoroughly. Those will probably have other solutions to what worked for other people's hens. Google and other searches also come up with helpful things. Best of luck!
 

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