2 Soft Shell Eggs in a Row?!

[Mother of Chaos]

Another thought: be sure that if you have to give calcium supplements, they also contain vitamin D3. (Most do.)

D3 is important for the body to absorb and use calcium.

This link from Johns Hopkins (human medicine) has more info:
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/vitamin-d-and-calcium

 

[SJsChickies]

Another thought: be sure that if you have to give calcium supplements, they also contain vitamin D3. (Most do.)

D3 is important for the body to absorb and use calcium.

This link from Johns Hopkins (human medicine) has more info:
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/vitamin-d-and-calcium

This is the one I’m giving her so hopefully it’s enough. She just dropped 2 soft shelled eggs in the run again this morning What is wrong with her!? She’s had 10 days of the calcium over the last 11 days. She’s been on layer feed since Thursday too. And always, oyster shells on the side.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

With multiple soft shelled eggs in a day, it sounds like her system is releasing ovarian ova too frequently for them to acquire a healthy shell.

She’s been laying for a month, correct? There’s a very good chance that her system just hasn’t gotten into full synch yet. Keep an eye out for signs of a retained egg, and give her time.

It’s obviously not the same thing, but when many girls first start menstruating, their periods are all over the map.

Edit for autocorrupt

 

[SJsChickies]

With multiple soft shelled eggs in a day, it sounds like her system is releasing ovarian too frequently for them to acquire a healthy shell.

She’s been laying for a month, correct? There’s a very good chance that her system just hasn’t gotten into full synch yet. Keep an eye out for signs of a retained egg, and give her time.

It’s obviously not the same thing, but when many girls first start menstruating, their periods are all over the map.

Yes she laid her first egg July 30th so exactly a month. I hope that’s just it. She looks miserable when she lays them. Usually looks better after they come out. Today she still looks sad and mopey and is just standing around even after she laid them.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Yes she laid her first egg July 30th so exactly a month. I hope that’s just it. She looks miserable when she lays them. Usually looks better after they come out. Today she still looks sad and mopey and is just standing around even after she laid them.

Poor girl. I hope she gets back in synch soon!

 

[SJsChickies]

Poor girl. I hope she gets back in synch soon!

I really hope so too. I feel helpless. I thought she was getting better and now seems like there’s no change.

 

[dbblondee]

I've had a rash of soft shell eggs this summer from not only my new layers, but my 1+ year old girls as well. Before we got the new pullets the older bunch had been on layer pellets, but still with oyster shell on the side. They never had soft shell issues until about 2 months of being on flock maker crumbles. Anyway, I ended up buying some of the flaked oyster shell vs the crumbled. They have been eating that better and our soft eggs issue seems to have resolved . Also, I sprinkled some around on the ground as well as putting it in the same dish and finally saw them eating it. So what I have learned at least from my flock is....
Flaked is greater than crumbled oyster shell, and oyster shell on the ground is superior to it in a dish dang chickens.

Great idea! Since I'm having the same issue, I will get flakes!

 

[SJsChickies]

Little update. Since she dropped the last 2 soft shelled eggs, she took the next 2 days off. Which I was actually grateful for. Poor thing has been THROUGH it. But since then she has laid 2 beautiful perfect eggs in the laying boxes! I have not given her any more calcium citrate either! I hope she continues this way cause she is in such a better mood every day!

 

[FreedomFarmer]

Same or similar situation here.
A 6 month old pullet started laying eggs about a month ago. But she was dropping a soft shelled egg from the roosting bar at night. About once a week she would lay a hard shell egg in the nesting box. About half of the hard shelled eggs layed in the box are double yolk. She is still dropping soft shelled eggs but too often.

I have seen her squeeze out a soft shelled egg in the evening then drop another from the roosting bar that night then after those 2 lay a hard shelled egg in the box within 24 hours. The hard shell egg happens once or twice a week while the soft shell eggs are about every other day. Once this week I saw her squirt out yellow like maybe a shelless egg and a few minutes later strain and drop a soft shell egg. Maybe the yellow squirt was from a soft shell egg that broke inside her. I have heard of shelless eggs.

I see her eat oyster shell and the dried crumbled egg shell I put out for all. They get Purina layer crumble that has oyster shell in it. When I first saw the soft shell egg issue I waited a couple of weeks to see if her reproductive system would get in balance but didn't. Then I gave the 600mg Calcium Citrate for a week that I saw recommended here in another forum or post. That didn't seem to help.

For now I am just waiting to see if she gets to normal egg laying with maturity. But I am concerned about too many eggs passing in a day on many days. I am also concerned if I try the calcium citrate again, could it result in her getting compacted with hard shelled eggs if it fixes the soft shelled egg issue but is passing a couple of eggs in a short time?

Any thoughts?

 

[cktap62]

I didn’t know 1 chicken could lay more than one egg a day, soft or hard! This is all new to me. Our situation seems to have resolved and I have the oyster shell flakes arriving tomorrow. The crumbles are going in the garden next year. By any chance are you giving them kale for a treat? I read somewhere it could cause a problem with calcium absorption in chickens. No idea where that was but we have stopped giving them so much of it. Which is unfortunate because they love it and it’s still growing like crazy here in our MN garden.