crunchymama11
Chirping
I am having some chicken drama. It started 3 weeks ago when an EE (2 1/2 yo), Emma, went broody for the 1st time ever. We eventually broke her broodiness (she was very stubborn). While we were dealing with that 1 night, we noticed a soft-shelled egg had just been laid in the coop and broke everywhere. We scooped out as much as we could, but the chickens still got a taste of egg. Emma was in the nesting box when this happened. I have another EE, Amelia, and 5 brown layers. After a few more soft-shelled eggs laid and eaten, drama in the nesting box, sudden aggression towards 1 chicken, multiple birds separated and brought inside, trauma from the nesting box drama and my top hen not laying in the nesting box nor allowing other hens to lay inside the nesting box, I have determined the soft-shelled eggs are coming from both my EEs. They girls are eating an 18% layer feed with occasional crushed egg shell thrown in run and free choice oyster shell. I do add some high protein snacks when molting- BOSS, cooked eggs, cooked beans. When I noticed the 1st soft egg, I threw extra OS in the feeder JIC the soft-egg layer wasn't eating the OS.
It's been 3 weeks, and the other chicken drama has mostly been resolved, but the EEs are both still laying soft-shelled brown eggs- not their usual green eggs. Amelia is molting- badly. She is laying her soft-egg just anywhere. It seems she is not aware she is laying an egg at all. These eggs get eaten quick. Emma- who I wasn't expecting to lay for a while due to the broodiness- is laying her soft shelled eggs in the nesting box. Sometimes it seems to be a whole egg shell, sometimes it appears to just be half an egg shell but normal size yolk. These aren't being eaten. She isn't molting yet that I can tell. My EEs are my egg-laying machines. Are they just "done" laying and their bodies are just too worn out from laying so much? Or are the soft eggs due to molting? I do not add supplemental light to my coop but all my girls mostly lay year-round, including some during their molts. Should I cull them bc the egg-eating was leading to some bad behaviors? Will they return to normal if it's molting? Is it something else? All the other chickens are laying hard, normal eggs.
It's been 3 weeks, and the other chicken drama has mostly been resolved, but the EEs are both still laying soft-shelled brown eggs- not their usual green eggs. Amelia is molting- badly. She is laying her soft-egg just anywhere. It seems she is not aware she is laying an egg at all. These eggs get eaten quick. Emma- who I wasn't expecting to lay for a while due to the broodiness- is laying her soft shelled eggs in the nesting box. Sometimes it seems to be a whole egg shell, sometimes it appears to just be half an egg shell but normal size yolk. These aren't being eaten. She isn't molting yet that I can tell. My EEs are my egg-laying machines. Are they just "done" laying and their bodies are just too worn out from laying so much? Or are the soft eggs due to molting? I do not add supplemental light to my coop but all my girls mostly lay year-round, including some during their molts. Should I cull them bc the egg-eating was leading to some bad behaviors? Will they return to normal if it's molting? Is it something else? All the other chickens are laying hard, normal eggs.