An egg with no shell

[Mark]

We have 16 pullets that just turned 5 months old. Three of them started laying eggs last week. Another two seem to have started this weekend.

Last night we got an egg with no shell. It seemed the membrane was strong enough to avoid a puncture, but there was nothing 'hard' about it. It was just a soft, leathery egg.

Anyone know what this means? I'm hoping it is just a part of the maturing process.

 

[can you hear me now?]

The question is, is there oyster shell available? They need added calcium to lay eggs with shells. Are there big changes in the coop, added chickens, stress from heat or predators? All of these are questions you can ask when they lay eggs without a shell. Even something as easy as moving things around in the coop may stress them out and they wont lay eggs. I hope this is helpful it is all I can think of to put here but maybe one of these things will get you a shell on those eggs lol.

 

[petlove]

can you hear me now? :

The question is, is there oyster shell available? They need added calcium to lay eggs with shells. Are there big changes in the coop, added chickens, stress from heat or predators? All of these are questions you can ask when they lay eggs without a shell. Even something as easy as moving things around in the coop may stress them out and they wont lay eggs. I hope this is helpful it is all I can think of to put here but maybe one of these things will get you a shell on those eggs lol.

At what age to you start oyster shell?​

 

[can you hear me now?]

I try to start mixing it into their feed when they start to show signs that they are going to lay. I honestly don't think there is a problem to do it a little earlier. I also am feeding them supplimental snacks like greens and corn. Even popcorn sometimes. If you don't have access to oyster shells you can even wash and ground up eggshells and make that available to them. The thing there is if you do that you have to make sure that the shells arent recognizable as eggshells so the hens dont associate the two to each other and start pecking their eggs and eating them because then there is a whole new problem in its own.

 

[chickenstowaway]

When my girls first started laying we had some eggs w/out shells as you described, some small, some huge double yolkers, some w.no yold and some elongated ones. This didn't last long as they moved out of "puberty" and became regular layers. Just watch them, make sure they have enough calcium, and enjoy!