Soft-shelled egg, then good egg, then soft-shelled, and so on...what's going on?

[My Three Chicks]

I had posted last week because my 15-month old hen started laying soft-shelled eggs and I thought she was eggbound. Well she's not eggbound so that's good. However, her laying has me puzzled so I'm back to get input. See her egg laying detail below:

Tues - normal egg at 9am & soft-shelled egg overnight
Wed - soft-shelled egg overnight
Thurs - no egg
Fri - no egg
Sat - normal egg at 9am & soft-shelled egg overnight
Sun - no egg
Mon - no egg
Tues - normal egg at 10am
Wed - normal egg at 1pm & soft-shelled egg overnight

Is this still just her working our reproductive kinks? She's been laying now for about 7 - 8 months and just started having this problem. It's so odd that she'll lay 2 eggs (a good one and a bad one within like a 12 hour span). And then some days she'll still sit in the nest box even after she's laid a bad egg the night before (but of course doesn't lay again). She's happy and healthy and acting normal otherwise!

They (4 hens) have free access to of oyster shells and crushed baked eggshells full time. (They love it and eat a lot of it!).

The past week I have also been giving her a half-tablet of Calcium citrate daily. And added apple cider vinegar to their water because I heard it helps with calcium absorption.

Please let me know your thoughts on this.

 

[SmiYa0126]

@Eggcessive @Wyorp Rock can you guys help? Strange situation..

 

[ChickNanny13]

What are you feeding? Treats?
The Oyster Shells you are free feed, is 100% or the mix? Some brands are mixed w/limestone or sea shells or coral .... Learned this last year & I now read the bags. I now purchase 100% Crushed OS from Amazon (Scratch & Peck). I also purchased Oyster Shell Flour (100%) which I would sprinkle on the feed plus they free fed OS.

It solved my one hen's issue. Once I felt comfortable, I eased off the flour & kept some but sprinkled some in my garden. Don't know if there's any difference with the make up of the OS being sold but from my experience I'm sticking with Crushed OS. Which are harder to come by since production slacked during Covid.

Search the Forums section (soft shelled eggs) ... It helps to read what others have tried. Many do the crushed egg shells but I keep 3 - 4 hens and it's easier with the OS. Also the absorbtion rate for the different types vary ... I can't find it in my notes right now

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/feeding-your-chickens-oyster-shells.77372/

 

[My Three Chicks]

What are you feeding? Treats?
The Oyster Shells you are free feed, is 100% or the mix?

I feed them fermented Grubbly Farm layer pellets.

I also sprout seeds and grow fodder and grass for them (mix of wheat, rye, barely, oats, clover, lentils, sunflower, etc).
For OS I give them a mix of Manna Pro (which I now see is mixed with coral calcium), Scratch & Peck, and their own baked eggshells.

For treats which they usually get once (sometimes twice a day)...I have 4 hens and they'll share like either 1/3 of banana, a dozen blueberries, a hardboiled egg, half a slice of bread, a little dried crickets or mealworm.

 

[My Three Chicks]

I should also say that they also 'free range' all day in my 1/3 acre backyard where they peck and scratch for bugs all day. It's heavily tree'ed and planted and they eat some of the herbs and hostas and recently fern (I made sure it's not the toxic Bracken variety).

 

[ChickNanny13]

My 1st thought is quit all the treats ... Grubbing is a treat.

I used to feed one of my past girls "healthy" fruits & veggies, I forget now but started having "issues" and was advised to trim the treats to 10% of their intake. I just quit, now they get their FR fermented, grit & will get OS when these start laying. They get a hand full of MW at close up ... Thats it.

The feed we purchased is a balance diet, we mess up the balance when we start treating and feeding extras. When they grub, they pick what they need, supplementing what we feed. I'm waiting to see what others have to advise ...

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Check her over for lice and mites, while you are doing that, take note if she's beginning to molt.

Consider deworming.

 

[My Three Chicks]

Check her over for lice and mites, while you are doing that, take note if she's beginning to molt.

Consider deworming.

I just did a thorough check yesterday. No mites or lice. She's all clean there.

Also I actually pick up their poo everyday and examine it closely. No worms in their poo. Are there other worms that would not show up in their poo and that's why you suggest deworming? I've never done that before.

And no, no sign of molting.

The only thing about her I can think of is that she's a huge pig. She gobbles up probably more of the greens I give them than the others. She's the biggest of the girls. Could she be overweight and that cause the egg issue?

That's my girl about an hour ago sitting with me before bedtime...

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Worm eggs are microscopic, so you wouldn't see them. If you were to see worms in the poop, then that would indicate a heavy infestation.
A fecal float performed by a vet would tell you more.

Hens that have a lot of fat in the abdomen could have problems with production.
I'd give her some time and see if this resolves on its own. You can try cutting out the greens.

 

[My Three Chicks]

Worm eggs are microscopic, so you wouldn't see them. If you were to see worms in the poop, then that would indicate a heavy infestation.
A fecal float performed by a vet would tell you more.

Hens that have a lot of fat in the abdomen could have problems with production.
I'd give her some time and see if this resolves on its own. You can try cutting out the greens.

Yeah I think I'll cut back on the greens and treats like @ChickNanny13 said too. Maybe too much of a good thing.
And I'll continue with the extra calcium and ACV for now.

In the meantime I'll see who does fecal float test around here.

Thank you @Wyorp Rock you are always so responsive and generous with your time to help us novices.