All of my hens are laying soft eggs

montana girl · May 7, 2008

This whole business started about a month or so ago when I posted about my ameracuana hen laying an egg covered in a membrane like sac. She has layed some normal eggs inbetween and some soft shelled eggs.

The layer crumbles that I feed my girls has calcium in it, and since this started happening I added lots and lots of oyster shell to the run.

Now.. all 3 of my girls are laying soft shelled eggs! Either that or poor Mae, my ameracauna is laying more than one soft shelled egg in a day. Another thing that Mae has started doing is laying eggs in odd places, such as in the run, or under her roost.

Are they not absorbing the calcium from the oyster shell? Is there something else that I can supplement calcium with?

This is just awful, I feel terrible that this problem is not improving!

Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this problem?

chick_a_rama · May 7, 2008

are these chickens old??

silkiechicken · May 7, 2008

How about vitamin D or girt? Grit should help the oyster shell get ground up and the vitamin D is what helps calcium to be adsorbed and metabolized. Which is why milk from the store often has added vitamin D. Maybe you can try a poultry vitamin supplement too?

montana girl · May 7, 2008

Thanks so much for the reply. I dont have grit in there, because they are on a dirt and gravel run.

I havent supplemented with Vitamin D, perhaps I will look for a chicken supplement.

No, the girls arent old, they are about one year old...and they have layed just perfectly up until now.

Thanks so much for the help.

Darlene

cluckysgang · May 11, 2008

Hi from England, been reding this post for clues, but can someone advise on soft eggs! I have pulletts who have layed three eggs so far, the last two days we have had two eggs that have been soft and one of the chickens have been eating it! Is it due to they being young? What should I look for. They have pelletts, corn as treats and a large run full of yummy things!

OkapisRule · May 11, 2008

Welcome to BYC cluckysgang! It's probably for the same reason as above.

patandchickens · May 11, 2008

When you say you have added oystershell to the run... do you mean, like, scattered it around? Perhaps they are not finding enough of it. I would suggest, if you haven't already, putting out a *dish* of oystershell, as if it were food. Then they can easily take as much as they want.

Good luck,

Pat

professor-yellow · May 11, 2008

My pullets started laying 1 and a half months early, while they were still on All Purpose even though I switched to layer pellets, their calcium soon was depleted after the third egg, and got the broken soft shell, so I threw out a good cup full of ground egghells and the hard shells came back in 2 days. Still feeding them the eggshell, and no problems since then.

I would also ask th efeedstore to contact the mill and see if there was a milling error in that lot. It happened before where the calcium hopper was malfunctioning, and was not detected right away.

Out of nowhere we atarted getting these soft eggs. It was some time ago, but the technology hasnt changed much.

keep us posted.

Bi0sC0mp · May 11, 2008

the eggs my hens lay are hard as a rock need a hammer to break the shell

cluckysgang · May 11, 2008

Thanks for the relpy professor-yellow I expect them to get better soon, will give the egg shells back to them in future, I think only one has started laying as the three eggs each were bigger everytime which would suggest that one hen is laying bigger every day, They are on layer pelletts as well!

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