Chicken laying soft shell or egg but no shell - what to do....

[BigFuzzball]

Hi, have a 13 month old Buff Sussex who's not been through a moult but stopped laying when the other chickens who were moulting did.
She's now started to lay again but for the last month she either lays really soft or tissue paper thin shells and so the eggs are useless. She's eating very well, lots of mash & layers pellets etc, obviously under DEFRA restrictions can't leave the run (Avian Flu outbreaks) but she's also getting treats, mealworms, fresh greens etc and have also been trying Calcium supplement (the tablets crushed sprinkled on food/treats).
She's the biggest healthiest looking bird we have and we're really at a loss as to the cause of this egg problem as she was the most regular layer of the biggest eggs, anyone any advice or ideas please ??

 

[CluckerFamily]

What about providing her with egg shells for the extra calcium.
Some people clean the shells, bake them, and crumble them up for the chickens to eat.

 

[theoldchick]

https://the-chicken-chick.com/how-hen-makes-egg-egg-oddities/

 

[BigFuzzball]

What about providing her with egg shells for the extra calcium.
Some people clean the shells, bake them, and crumble them up for the chickens to eat.

Hi, thanks for the reply.
My fault....forgot to say in my post that we have been saving, washing, baking, crushing and sprinkling the egg shells onto our birds food for years now and whereas Dottie our Welsummer has benefited and begun laying again, Maisie our Buff Sussex is only still laying about one in 5 eggs with 'strong' shells, she's still producing the rest without shells/rubbery shells/tissue paper thin ones your fingers go through the minute you touch !
Even after 11yrs of keeping chickens am I missing 'something' here please ? She took 'time off' from end of October (when the others became erratic laying starting moults) but started back like this. Maybe a suggestion of a food or vegetable that might help ??

 

[MysteryChicken]

Can you get a bag, or two of oyster shells?


What treats have you been giving, & how often?

 

[BigFuzzball]

Can you get a bag, or two of oyster shells?


What treats have you been giving, & how often?

They have oyster shells and in a separate bowl, treats are mixed cracked corn, seed mix, black sunflower seeds, sunflower hearts, mealworms, split peas etc in the afternoons (and as 'confined to barracks' have been using small plastic drinks bottles with holes in loaded with the treats which amuses them for ages kicking them, rolling, pecking lol).

 

[MysteryChicken]

They have oyster shells and in a separate bowl, treats are mixed cracked corn, seed mix, black sunflower seeds, sunflower hearts, mealworms, split peas etc in the afternoons (and as 'confined to barracks' have been using small plastic drinks bottles with holes in loaded with the treats which amuses them for ages kicking them, rolling, pecking lol).

So you give treats every afternoon? Try cutting back to every 1-2 weeks?

 

[BigFuzzball]

So you give treats every afternoon? Try cutting back to every 1-2 weeks?

Thanks for the advice, will cut them back to a couple of days a week and take it from there.
The treats are literally that though, being locked in their run (as per DEFRA restrictions) day in day out they really are struggling - they've decimated any grass etc in there, currently the ground is totally frozen so they can't even dig or forage and with the treats at least they had something to look forward to lol.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Thanks for the advice, will cut them back to a couple of days a week and take it from there.
The treats are literally that though, being locked in their run (as per DEFRA restrictions) day in day out they really are struggling - they've decimated any grass etc in there, currently the ground is totally frozen so they can't even dig or forage and with the treats at least they had something to look forward to lol.

Yeah, too many treats can interfere with calcium absorption.