Why did my chicken lay a soft, rubbery egg? Is she sick?

[casportpony]

You could try giving her a human calcium pill, that's what I do with mine.

-Kathy

 

[Roo Boy]

I'm getting a few rubber eggs latey too. Tried oyster shells and that has not helped. I'm not sure of their ages. Can older or younger hens have problems periodically with rubber eggs.

 

[Annabelleshome]

My hens have started to lay just a few weeks ago and found a softy in an unusual place, near where I quarentined the roo. Normaly they are laying in a ground nest they created in the coop area.. The roo has a tick or something so I dusted him with some DE and put him in a large crate outside with his hens. I found the egg in the evening on the top of the crate, while the hens had gone off nearby to roost.

I am thinking in this case it was possibly stress having changed the roosting routine to treat the roo. I added some eggshell to the feeder tonight as well. I will continue to do this and see if that helps.

I am really quite sure the roo has a tick which he will NOT let me pull off, and screams literaly when I try to.. so I dusted him good with DE as I said. The area is black around the tick and the roos skin seems to be black in the area also. He is a very fluffy leghorn firzzle so the black really stood out. Any suggestions for this situation that I could improve on his treatment for this tick?

 

[smack2013]

I would not feed my chickens their own egg shells. They can begin to eat their eggs before you get a chance to gather them. I had someone chicken sit for me once and they thought it would be a good idea to feed the shells to my hens. Ever after they would peck them open and eat them. I had to get rid of the offending hens. Stick with the oyster shells or course sand.

 

[JeanM]

One of my 8 month old RI Red hens has been doing this. She and her two siblings (as in, same age & same source) have been on "Layena Plus Omega 3" from the start, so I doubt that there's a lack of calcium.

Four days ago she laid a "rubber egg," as in there was no shell but a thick membrane; the next day she was lethargic (and no egg); the next day she was "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed" (or so to speak ;-) ) and laid another "rubber egg", and the same again today. Curiously, the last two "rubber eggs" were under their nighttime perch & not in the nesting box.

I was thinking of egg peritonitis when she was acting sick, but I wouldn't expect her to appear so healthy again.

FWIW, I now suspect that she's been the one occasionally laying light-pigmented shells, but their quality was normal otherwise. I also occasionally have gotten double-yolk eggs... again, I wonder if they have been from this hen & her hormones are just a bit off (?)

What think, experts? will she ever lay normal eggs again? what can I do to help her out, if anything?

 

[TXchickmum]

We' been experiencing this as well. My 18 month-old Golden Comet has been doing the same thing. Some days she will lay two strange eggs close together. One soft-shelled (and not compltely formed) followed by just an egg-sac looking type of egg filled with some liquid. She has gone to roost on several occasions early as if she was ill - only to be followed by acting her chipper self the next morning. I, too, wondered if she has developed peritonitis or prolapse (or something related). -hope someone with good knowledge replies as I am curious, too.

 

[JeanM]

I bought some calcium chips for them yesterday, so I'm hoping (against hope?) to see a difference. one thing that gives me hope that this might work is that one of the other hen's eggs was a bit thin-shelled. It sure doesn't seem likely that they're lacking calcium, though, since they've always been on a big name brand of balanced feed.

Update: about 3-4 days since offering The Goddesses additional calcium, and today I had an egg with a SHELL, albeit a very light, very thin-shelled one. I'll keep y'all posted, but right now I'm questioning the quality of the "quality" feed I've been buying for my layers...

 

[cheeseball]

My silky laid a soft rubbery egg,She's been laying for a year with no problems until today and I had just added wormer to the water 8 hours earlier I was wondering if the worming meds had something to do with it?

 

[scrapmaster]

My chicken will lay a good egg in the morning and then in the evening she will lay a soft egg

 

[Angie16hearts]

I found this today from my best layer " Lucy" gives a egg a day. I feed them I oyster shells, I crush there eggs, fruits veggies a few times a week. Lis sunflower, safflower, flax ect....

is she ok? I'm worried!