Egg with no shell? (Picture)

[tcwk]

I have 5 18-19 week girls, one has been laying steady for the last 6 days. None of the others have started to lay yet. I just put the girls to bed and I checked the coop for eggs just in case. I spotted this in the poo pile under the roost. Ive heard of chickens laying eggs with no shells and I'm positive that it is one.

I would just like to know if I should expect another girl to start laying. Is there anything wrong or anything I could do?

-I have them on layer feed
-The only one that goes into the nest boxes is the one who is laying (Maybe the outer girls aren't comfortable enough anywhere to lay yet because they haven't found the boxes?)

Edit :SP

 

[Bpmarmstrong]

You need to give them oyster shells

 

[chickenbottom]

or feed them back their own egg shells for calcium thats what egg shells are. if i remember correctly

 

[grnhrn]

That's exactly what I found this morning too. I cover their yard with the oyster shell about once every 2 weeks. Should they be getting more than that? We have 4 BR.

 

[tcwk]

I'm not sure, my one hen that is laying gives us nice eggs with thick shells. Do you think the others aren't laying because they don't know how to go into the nest boxes?

 

[briesberrypatch]

This is not unusual for birds that are just starting to come into lay. As their systems get regulated, they will start laying normal eggs. However, if your layer ration doesn't include calcium, then you need to give them free-choice oyster shell. Spreading it in their yard seems an inefficient way to go about it - why not just set up an extra feeder filled with oyster shell? The hens will eat it as needed, and none goes to waste out in the yard.

Your hens will start using the nest boxes when they're ready to lay. If they didn't like the nest boxes but were ready to lay, they would lay their eggs somewhere else. (My hens refuse to use the nest boxes - they prefer to make a floor nest in deep straw in a corner of the hen house, and all the hens lay their eggs there.)

 

[tcwk]

Ok, thanks a lot for your help.

 

[grnhrn]

Thanks, going to set them up with a pan tomorrow. I started thinking about it, and I rarely see them scratching. They go straight to their sandbox and peck at it.

 

[Big C]

We use Purina sunfresh layer pellets.
Have this ever so often when a new pullet starts to lay. Its actually good since then you know that soon your gonna have a new layer hen.
Stopped buying oyster shell after the first bag. They don't touch it since they get all they need from the runs and their feed.

 

[briesberrypatch]

Oh, I also wanted to make sure you know that if you do feed them egg shells instead of oyster shell, you need to make sure that the egg shells are really crushed up well so that you can't tell they were eggs. You don't want to get your hens to get into the habit of pecking at eggs!

I personally don't feed my hens egg shells. I found it to be too messy and too much of a hassle to dry the shells and then crush them. I do save egg shells in early spring to use for my tomato plants, though. The calcium in the egg shells helps prevent blossom end rot on tomatoes.