15 month old EE with laying issues

[Little Coop on Salt Creek]

Howdy everybody,

We have a 15 month old Easter Egger (Rose) who has been a very consistent layer since she started laying last summer. I am going to start by saying, I forgot to get a picture of her eggs as I thought it was a fluke! On Monday, I got an egg from her that was laid on the floor and more elongated than usual, but not grossly. The egg also looked like it had an extra membrane that was dried and rolled in places on its outer shell. Tuesday night at bedtime, she dropped a shell-less egg from the roost bar. Wednesday, she didn't lay an egg. This morning, she was in the nest boxes trying to lay her egg with 2 incredibly determined hens who wouldn't leave her be. I stayed in the coop until she laid it and tried to keep the other 2 away from her. When she laid the egg, someone pecked at it (she also may have tried to roll it under herself) and the next thing I knew, there was busted egg all over the nest box.

When I picked it up, it had a very, very thin shell that had a ton of tiny cracks all over it.. almost like it hadn't completely received the outer shell. She is acting completely normal; eating, drinking, bathing, clucking, etc. She has access to free-choice oyster shell and is fed a flock raiser formula crumble along with everyone else.

Does this sound like anything I need to be super concerned with?

 

[ashlierami]

I am having the same issue with my patridge silkie. She hatched a chick Christmas 2017 and started laying 3 weeks after. She laid normally daily or every other day until about a month or 6 weeks ago. She's had soft shelled eggs or shell less. About a week ago she laid an actual normal egg but hasn't since. I have unlimited oyster shell available as well. Someone suggested I get her on a layer feed or feed her Tums for calcium. When she was egg bound I tried to feed her Tums but she wouldn't eat it so I had to force her to drink a Tums water mix I made. She never had laying issues prior to becoming a mother and she started laying at about 5 months old or 4 months. I got her at 6 weeks old in July 2017. Does your girl have a healthy weight? Do you give her treats?

 

[Clemmy]

egg bound or lash egg? sounds odd- like ashlierami said, is she completely normal and healthy??

 

[aart]

Thin and soft shelled eggs could have several causes.
Stress could be one reason, not eating enough of the OS could be another.
Her shell gland could just be going on the fritz.
It's probably not binding or lash(infection).
Those birds harassing her may be after her soft shelled delicacies.
Supplementing some calcium might help.
Have had this problem with one bird, cleaning messed nests is a PITA, calcium supp didn't help so she's on the cull list.

 

[Little Coop on Salt Creek]

She is acting altogether fine, other than this mysterious egg issue. To my knowledge, there hasn't been any recent stress that I'm aware of. We have 6 1/2 week old Silkies being raised by broodies, but she doesn't really bother with them. We had one of our Black Australorps suddenly die 2 weeks ago yesterday, but again, she was her BFF that I was aware of and all her other eggs previous to Monday seem normal. We have had some hellacious winds here for the past few weeks.. maybe she got spooked by something. They have a very good wind barrier in the run, so even our warm bad winds don't seem to be bothersome to them.

I can try giving her some crushed Tums in yogurt if it persists. Getting just one girl to eat something is a challenge around here as everyone feels the need to get in on the action. I would prefer not to isolate her unless it is absolutely necessary.

Very sorry to hear your gal has to be on the 'list' @aart

 

[Little Coop on Salt Creek]

egg bound or lash egg? sounds odd- like ashlierami said, is she completely normal and healthy??

Absolutely acting normal

 

[Little Coop on Salt Creek]

I am having the same issue with my patridge silkie. She hatched a chick Christmas 2017 and started laying 3 weeks after. She laid normally daily or every other day until about a month or 6 weeks ago. She's had soft shelled eggs or shell less. About a week ago she laid an actual normal egg but hasn't since. I have unlimited oyster shell available as well. Someone suggested I get her on a layer feed or feed her Tums for calcium. When she was egg bound I tried to feed her Tums but she wouldn't eat it so I had to force her to drink a Tums water mix I made. She never had laying issues prior to becoming a mother and she started laying at about 5 months old or 4 months. I got her at 6 weeks old in July 2017. Does your girl have a healthy weight? Do you give her treats?

She does have a healthy weight, she's the same size as the rest of our EE's. Our whole flock gets treats as an incentive to come in from free-range time. It is a mix of meal worms, BOSS, Scratch. I toss out an equivalent of about a 50 cent piece worth for each girl. They will get plain meal worms on occasion too.

 

[ashlierami]

She does have a healthy weight, she's the same size as the rest of our EE's. Our whole flock gets treats as an incentive to come in from free-range time. It is a mix of meal worms, BOSS, Scratch. I toss out an equivalent of about a 50 cent piece worth for each girl. They will get plain meal worms on occasion too.

I would try the tums thing. I have roosters that eat with the rest so I am hesitant about layer feed. I didn't think about this before but I boil eggs and feed that to my girls as treat . I give shell and all maybe the shell would help with calcium. It hasn't been successful for me but it for my older hen back into laying.

 

[Little Coop on Salt Creek]

I would try the tums thing. I have roosters that eat with the rest so I am hesitant about layer feed. I didn't think about this before but I boil eggs and feed that to my girls as treat . I give shell and all maybe the shell would help with calcium. It hasn't been successful for me but it for my older hen back into laying.

I do give hard boiled egg, only occasionally though. I haven't ever given the shell and all though. With our babies in the flock right now, I'd be hesitant to do any supplementing flock wide that is fed to everyone. The reason we did flock raiser instead of layer and offer oyster shell on the side is because we wanted to be able to have babies and are hoping to end up with a roo this go round.

 

[ashlierami]

I do give hard boiled egg, only occasionally though. I haven't ever given the shell and all though. With our babies in the flock right now, I'd be hesitant to do any supplementing flock wide that is fed to everyone. The reason we did flock raiser instead of layer and offer oyster shell on the side is because we wanted to be able to have babies and are hoping to end up with a roo this go round.

Yes I understand completely. I have a mixed flock babies, hens, and roos so I give flock raiser as well and just keep oyster shell out. My girls enjoy the shell I just chop the boiled egg up so the shell is small and they eat it all. It helped my older hen just not the silkie.