soft shell / no shell question

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junkman56

junkman56

Songster
7 Years
Sep 7, 2016
622
741
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Northwestern PA. ( Tionesta )
My Coop
My Coop
hello, I have a question / problem, I am new to chicken keeping, this is my first time with laying chickens, up till about 2 weeks ago I been getting nice large hard shelled eggs. recently within the last two weeks I been getting 1 or 2 very soft shelled eggs, I do not know which one of my 7 layers are laying the soft to no shell egg, I have oyster shell for them to eat at will, how can I get all the chickens to eat the oyster shell ? or could there be another problem with the chicken? is there anything else I can give to the hens long with the oyster shells so they get more calcium?
thank you
 
How much scratch are you giving them? I would cut back on that altogether for a week or two to see if it helps. If they are eating scratch, they are eating less layer feed which has a higher calcium level, so essentially the scratch grains are diluting their calcium intake. You could try throwing crushed egg shells into the run and mixing some crumbles with milk or yoghurt or cottage cheese to increase calcium intake. It's not good to feed to much dairy though, so don't make it a daily thing If they don't free range, dig up some dandelions and throw them into the run. I was just reading recently that they are quite a good source of calcium.

It could however be a problem with an individual hen. I had one that I couldn't resolve. Same diet as all the others but hers were thin shelled and kept getting broken in the nest boxes and making a mess. She was an older lady though. How old are yours? If she is just young, it may sort itself out with a bit of supplementation. You could try giving her a piece of soggy bread sprinkled with a calcium supplement tablet that had been pulverised or I think you can get a liquid calcium supplement. If you do that for a week and she is no better, then the chances are she has a problem and you are not going to be able to fix it with diet.

Good luck with her and I hope you can resolve the problem.

PS. Something else to consider is that she might be stressed on the roost at night and the eggs are being pushed through her shell gland too quickly as a result. A predator prowling around or rats or the other chickens next to her on the roost, giving her a hard time, might cause that...it's less likely than a dietary or medical problem, but worth thinking about.
 
I, too, have just 1 hen, that has been laying a soft shelled/no shell egg for a month now. And she lays her egg up in the top of the coop where I have made a roosting spot, so it falls onto the floor and cracks/gets damaged. The egg laid was harder yesterday, but I decided to leave a bowl with shavings to "catch" it below her, since shes not laying in the nesting box with the other hens.

I feed the hens "Poulin Grain" layer pellets, in addition to table scraps every other day, which I have heard has more than enough calcium for egg shells. And all of the other 11 hens are doing just fine.

I still have no solution, and don't plan on going crazy trying to figure it out, being just 1 hen.
 
rebrascora said:
How much scratch are you giving them? I would cut back on that altogether for a week or two to see if it helps. If they are eating scratch, they are eating less layer feed which has a higher calcium level, so essentially the scratch grains are diluting their calcium intake. You could try throwing crushed egg shells into the run and mixing some crumbles with milk or yoghurt or cottage cheese to increase calcium intake. It's not good to feed to much dairy though, so don't make it a daily thing If they don't free range, dig up some dandelions and throw them into the run. I was just reading recently that they are quite a good source of calcium.

It could however be a problem with an individual hen. I had one that I couldn't resolve. Same diet as all the others but hers were thin shelled and kept getting broken in the nest boxes and making a mess. She was an older lady though. How old are yours? If she is just young, it may sort itself out with a bit of supplementation. You could try giving her a piece of soggy bread sprinkled with a calcium supplement tablet that had been pulverised or I think you can get a liquid calcium supplement. If you do that for a week and she is no better, then the chances are she has a problem and you are not going to be able to fix it with diet.

Good luck with her and I hope you can resolve the problem.

PS. Something else to consider is that she might be stressed on the roost at night and the eggs are being pushed through her shell gland too quickly as a result. A predator prowling around or rats or the other chickens next to her on the roost, giving her a hard time, might cause that...it's less likely than a dietary or medical problem, but worth thinking about.
Click to expand...

my hens are going on 8 months old, I do give them scratch everyday. and I don't let them free range, due to my dog.

I will cut down on the scratch and see what happens, I will toss some egg shells into the run today. the last couple of days I been tossing oyster shells in the run

yesterday I gave them sunflower seeds and meal worms, and today I got 7 hard shelled eggs from 7 hens, one was pretty small. I don't know if that had anything to do with it.

maybe I am worrying over this to much, and I shouldn't be
 

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