Chickens laying soft shell eggs

[ColorCountry]

I have four 18 month old Sapphire Gems. Up until the beginning of summer all
were laying nice large eggs. Over the summer two of them started to lay soft
shell eggs. I tried several things like changing the brand of layer crumbles I
use, as well as making sure they have oyster shells available to them. They
don't seem to eat the oyster shells. I even put the oyster shells on top of their
food in my feeders so they might eat it. Still soft shell eggs.

Is there a calcium powder that can be mixed in their water that would make sure
they get more calcium? I also give them the Grubblies oven roasted black soldier
fly larvae as a snack.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Hi, sorry you are having this trouble. It's often hard to tell if chickens are eating oyster shell because they don't need much, so the level in the dish doesn't seem to go down. But it does! If you know which hen is laying the soft eggs you can give her a Calcium Citrate +D3 tablet right in her beak once a day for about a week. You can get this at any store that sells vitamins and supplements. I find it easiest to do this after they roost at night so I can get hold of her without chasing. Just pull down on her wattles to open her beak and pop it in. You might also cut down on the snacks and consider a higher protein feed, 20% compared to the 16% in layer feed.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Try mixing crushed eggshells with the oyster shell. A lot of birds prefer it and if they're both in the same dispenser they may end up grabbing some oyster too. You can bake them, boil them, or just let them air dry, whatever you feel comfortable with.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Some chickens prefer flaked oyster shells to the more common chunked ones.

You can buy the flaked version, or you can put the chunks in a heavy duty bag, like an empty feed bag, and pound on the bag with a hammer, breaking up the large chunks.

But definitely, adding in crushed eggshells should help.