At my witts end with soft shelled eggs, laying eggs while roosting, drop in egg production

[sanmar4chickens]

How big is your coop? If it's too small, the stress of overcrowding may have instigated the not-laying-in-the-boxes.

Also, I don't know if this would affect them laying in the boxes or not, but you don't need 6 nest boxes for nine or even fourteen hens. 2 or 3 boxes would be plenty. We have had as many as 30 for 4 boxes and they all laid in the boxes. Right now we have 11 hens and 2 boxes. Maybe too many boxes is confusing them?!

The coup is more than big enough for 9 hens. We had 14 total but reduced flock over 2 months ago to only 9, the largest hens are 2 copper marans and a wyandotte. there is no fighting and they have a large run area. the reason why we had 6 nest boxes still in the coop. I really don't think that's the problem, they use 2 of the 6 nests. Maybe they are confused, IDK. I have seen some eggs out on the run area.

Have you seen any signs that their immune systems are fighting anything? When mine were not noticeably symptomatic but were in fact fighting MG I was having between 1 and 3 eggs laid from the roost. At first they were mostly regular looking eggs, but then the shells got softer and softer till they were mostly shell-less. I am not suggesting you have MG in your flock, only that there might be something taxing their systems that you haven't noticed yet. Any mild signs of fowl pox? Mites, lice, bumblefoot? Just a guess since the normal issues don't seem to be in play here.

What is MG? I have not seen any pox marks on their faces. We gave then a bath last week and noticed the leghorn had like the start of bumble foot, like a red dot on the pad and noticed she had some lice crawling around, we treated them all for mites and lice. We made 2 dusting baths with peat moss and some sevin dust, they love that.

I had a similar issue. My girls cracked or ripped the softed shelled or thin shelled eggs that were layed too and ate them. I don't have an egg eating problem - thank the Lord. I offer free choice oyster shells all the time. They didn't eat them. I fed them back their own eggs with egg shells and Oyster shells mixed. Still didn't help. I went to Walmart and bought calcium and vitamin D pills. I grind them up once a week and add that to an egg. The soft shell eggs are gone. Hope this helps.

I can give that a try, but I bought them vitamin and mineral supplement that goes in their water. also has electrolytes and probiotics.

 

[rides2far]

Thanks Messipaw, I'm going to try that if my one pullet doesn't start laying hard shelled eggs. She's just started laying, but all 3 have been really soft. I have 14, so I don't know who it is. I have 2 I know lay solid shelled eggs, I just don't know who my 3rd layer is. I'll give a few more eggs before I use your remedy. They do have oyster shell free choice & I just put them on layer mix.

 

[rides2far]

BTW, Messipaw, what was the ratio for vitamin D & calcium to egg? Thanks.

 

[Messipaw]

Hi. Here's what I do. I crack two eggs to cook. I add those shells to a food processor with two regular sized calcium pills. I add this to the eggs and then pop two vitamin D pills in. They are gel caplets so I poke a hole in them. I will also add a good amount of cayenne pepper. It's supposed to help eggs production. I hope this helps you.

 

[sanmar4chickens]

Hi. Here's what I do. I crack two eggs to cook. I add those shells to a food processor with two regular sized calcium pills. I add this to the eggs and then pop two vitamin D pills in. They are gel caplets so I poke a hole in them. I will also add a good amount of cayenne pepper. It's supposed to help eggs production. I hope this helps you.

I still have a few girls dropping egg from the roost at night. I'm going to give this a try or will cull the ones with the issue. Thanks for sharing the recipe. I'm going to try it.

 

[Messipaw]

Keep me posted. Good luck.

 

[rides2far]

I had a similar issue. My girls cracked or ripped the softed shelled or thin shelled eggs that were layed too and ate them. I don't have an egg eating problem - thank the Lord. I offer free choice oyster shells all the time. They didn't eat them. I fed them back their own eggs with egg shells and Oyster shells mixed. Still didn't help. I went to Walmart and bought calcium and vitamin D pills. I grind them up once a week and add that to an egg. The soft shell eggs are gone. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the recipe. I am going to bookmark this for future reference. My soft shell eggs seem to be better, but if I have the recipe, I can fix them right up!

 

[Messipaw]

Hi. What I did was grind up a bunch of calcium pills in the food processor. I store them in a mason jar. When I give my hens any treats or one of their own eggs I sprinkle the calcium over it. I also would put a few drops of vitamin D over it. I try to give this mixture to them once a week in the morning so I know they eat it. So far it's been helping. I have had some calcium clusters on some eggs but it's better than the soft shell or shell less eggs I was getting. Hope this helps. Let me know.

 

[Messipaw]

Thanks for the recipe. I am going to bookmark this for future reference. My soft shell eggs seem to be better, but if I have the recipe, I can fix them right up!

 

[sanmar4chickens]

Hi. What I did was grind up a bunch of calcium pills in the food processor. I store them in a mason jar. When I give my hens any treats or one of their own eggs I sprinkle the calcium over it. I also would put a few drops of vitamin D over it. I try to give this mixture to them once a week in the morning so I know they eat it. So far it's been helping. I have had some calcium clusters on some eggs but it's better than the soft shell or shell less eggs I was getting. Hope this helps. Let me know.

Thank you. That is a good idea, to have it ready and reduce the amount of time i have to spend preparing the eggs for the chickens. I have a Calcium Magnesium with Vitamin D3 pill . I wonder if that will work, I don't want to overdose them. They get a probiotic/vitamin and mineral and electrolyte powder mix in their water. I will keep ya posted