Both of my chickens suddenly started laying soft shelled eggs

[Gill Family]

I have two gold comets that started laying in August. They are free range and I have been giving them layer crumble. The first two dozen eggs have been perfect but now all i'm getting are soft shelled and no shelled eggs. I have seen both chickens lay the soft eggs and it started at the same time for both. I added oyster shell today and I hope that helps. They are otherwise behaving normally and eating and drinking well. Is there anything else I should be doing for them?

 

[Wyandottes7]

New layers will often occaisonally lay soft shelled eggs. This is because their system is not quite used to egg laying. It can also happen especially to older birds, but really can occur with a bird of any age. One of my friend has an Easter Egger that lays a soft shelled egg every few weeks or so, but lays perfectly fine eggs most of the time.

Adding oyster shell is a good idea, as it should give them more calcium in case it is being caused by a calcium deficiency. If they don't like the oyster shell (I've never had a problem with this, but some people have), try baking and then grinding up some of their egg shells (a coffee grinder works great) and giving them that.