1-yr Old Hen Laying Soft-Shelled Eggs Off Roost at Night. Also Lethargic and Reduced Appetite

[dc95123]

@dc95123 what happened with your girl? I've been going through this on and off with my rir for 4 or 5 months now. She's going to the vet monday

She's doing a bit better now after I made some changes. She's still lays a couple soft shell eggs a month but doesn't seem to get sick.

Here's what I changed:

• 3 monthly worming now (instead of twice a year). This hen seems to be riddled with worms - I often see them in her droppings.
• I feed them back their egg shells by microwaving them, mixing with shell grit and leaving them in a separate feeding tray in the coop.
• If my sick hen lays a soft shelled egg I stop feeding the flock treats for a few days and give them their pellet feed only. I'll also feed the flock some scrambled eggs to give them a bit of extra nutrition.

 

[Binxolsen]

I'm glad she's doing better

 

[oldducky92]

What are you worming your flock with? What dosage? Most wormers such as Valbazen or SafeGuard Liquid Goat Wormer should be given and followed with a second dose in 10 days to get the worm larvae that hatched. Safeguard is also sometimes given for 5 consecutive days to get the more difficult worms, such as capillary or gapeworm.

Is she close to molting age? Does she eat layer feed and have access to crushed oyster shell? Have you ever seen frequent sneezing or a respiratory disease such as infectious bronchitis symptoms in your chickens? IB virus can cause egg shell problems. Hens going into or coming out of molt might have an occasional soft egg. Reproductive infection or inflammation might also be a cause.

When soft egg shells are a problem, I would recommend giving a human calcium tablet with D3 for 3-4 days, to see if it makes a difference.

 

[oldducky92]

How much goat wormer do I give? The bottle instructions are per 100 lbs. for goats.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Just a note that may be of interest. I was getting soft shell and shell-less eggs for a while consistently, sometimes as many as three or four a day. I thought I knew who was doing it and gave her the CC+D3 tablets but there was no change. Then I discovered a black rat snake in my coop! I eliminated it and for a few days I got no soft eggs. Then, the soft and shell-less eggs showed up again - and I found a second snake in my coop! I got rid of that one, too. And after about two or three days, the eggs went back to normal and I have not had any jelly eggs since.

Conclusion: the problem was that my hen(s) were laying defective eggs due to STRESS. When the stressor (snakes) were eliminated, the problem went away. I will also say that my coop had a horrible odor until I got rid of the snakes although I clean the poop trays daily.

 

[TillyPeeps]

How much goat wormer do I give? The bottle instructions are per 100 lbs. for goats.

Here is deworming information: https://the-chicken-chick.com/control-treatment-of-worms-in-chickens/

https://www.heritageacresmarket.com/how-to-deworm-chickens/

 

[oldducky92]

Thank you!