consistently getting soft shelled eggs

[leedyfeathers]

I had problems with soft shell no shell.. lot of those and thin shell. I couldn't seem to get my chickens to eat layer feed or crumbles. They are free range so I thought Maybe it was them wanting that over feed. I had free choice oister shell I fed back their eggs and had calcium carbonate ..gravels? Anyway that only help some I stopped using AVC a cap in a gallon of water and it made no difference.
I did discover that the feed from the source was almost always molded even though the change in brand was made from that source. I changed sources and feed to nature wise. The hens devoured it I fill the feeder up two scoops and it last two days with free range hens where before it was three.. four days and sometimes longer. I hardly have egg problems except still occasional thin shell. I have also discovered this last month that my hens have LL. and one hen was diagnosed also to have fatty liver disease she was a dual purpose bird and because I fed too much corn and wheat as scratch along with hand full bread or scraps. So ive nearly cut all that out. My poor hens have been through a lot I being new to chickens also learned the hard way about what not and to feed. Ive added a vitamin drench to the water for those thin shell days.
Hope you lots of luck vitamins can be deficient from the start in some feeds then any molds will also cause nutrients to not be absorbed. Sickness can do the same thing lice and worms will to sooooo that being said check your hens over real good check the places they eat and drink if still not getting anyplace change food.. take note how often you treat and what kinds. Last but not least do fecal float and blood test for issues or as last resort sacrifice a bird to be given nerocropsy to find out what is going on.. maybe the ofender if you know it.
Good luck

 

[jmp-pdx]

Well... my girls have it made. Plenty of sun/vitamin d. Free choice oyster shell and crushed egg shells. Organic layer feed. Outside free ranging each day. Not too many treats so it doesn't mess with their nutrition.

All 11 were happy, no fighting, etc. Bird in question was super friendly. She went in the nest box several times this past week. Squawked and sat in the nest for an hour plus. No egg. Then i found shell less eggs under the roost bar in the morning. There have been several instances of this the past week.

Soooooooo. After 4 or 5 weeks of this... She went back to the farmer today and he gave me a barred rock instead.I'm not too happy about it because i have all red sex links but he was out of them.

I'm really not sure what her problem was but honestly i don't have the time to help her. Maybe he'll figure get out and give her more time to get it right. Thank you all for your responses and help, hopefully Marshmallow will find a new home and her body will learn how to do it's job!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I hope the new one fits in without too much fighting.

 

[Feather duster]

I have nine Barred Rocks and one of them started laying soft shelled eggs in January & February. I think it was because of a lack of being out in the sunshine. They have one bowl with oyster shells & one with crushed egg shells free choice. I stopped giving them treats & scratch so they just got layer feed. I cut out ACV to only once or twice a week. I got some liquid vitamin D3 and gave them that a couple times a week. Now the eggs are back to normal, but I don't really know if its because of the changes I made, or if its because the days are getting longer.

 

[suzy5033]

I have only one white egg layer. She layed first thing this morning but then tonight we found a whitr thin shelled broken egg in a nesting box. Any ideas? My other hens lay brown and chocolate and green. My 2 green egg layers layed today but not my brown or chocolate. Could this broken thin white egg have been a brown one that wasnt developed or a premature white one?

 

[aart]

I have only one white egg layer. She layed first thing this morning but then tonight we found a whitr thin shelled broken egg in a nesting box. Any ideas? My other hens lay brown and chocolate and green. My 2 green egg layers layed today but not my brown or chocolate. Could this broken thin white egg have been a brown one that wasnt developed or a premature white one?

How old are you birds and what is their laying history?

 

[suzy5033]

I just got them the 1st of march, I was told that this is their 3rd laying season. I have 5 and have been getting 3-4 eggs a day. They started laying about 10 days after I got them. I had 6 but she has what appeared to be crd and we culled her last week. We thought she was my brown egg layer but have figured out that she was not laying at all.

 

[frw1985]

I have not had any soft shell egg problems with my Red Stars over that last few years. But we did have a problems getting several a week. So I asked a friend who use to have White Leghorns Years ago and he raised for commercial purposes. They used the same 26 Percent Injectable Calcium Gluconate that you give to cattle for Calcium deficiency (Milk Fever). They put it in the water did not injecting it. They started out using 10-20 C per gallon of water. I added the Calcium Gluconate into their water and also started throwing part of their Scratch in with their oyster shell. The soft shell eggs were gone with in the week.
I just put the Calcium Gluconate in the refridgerator and dosed them again for a few days a month later . I actually forgot about it and didn't add the calcium again until we had the problems again. We had several older hens that would do this more in the winter time . So we just made some adjustments for them and that fixed the problem. We would add a some of the Boostem that we fed our show Horses to their feed and this also helped the older hens.
After seeing that the Boostem ( same as Cal Manna) worked for the calcium deficiency I have used it with our young pullets when they start laying and also a little to any older hens.
Three years ago when my Grandmother passed we were the only ones in the family with chickens and she still had two 10 year old very large White Leghorn hens. So we took them home with us and one lived to be 12 to 13 the other only lived about a year after Granny passed.. These girls would eat the Vitamin pellet out of my hand . They loved it. The oldest hen knew where I went to get her little daily scoop and would stand by the Storage Can waiting on her ration. That old girl still laid up till two days before she passed. She feel off the roost one morning , I guess died in her sleep. I heard the hens sounding like something was after them. It was about 6 Am I went out and evidently she had just fell off of the roost and died. She was still warm.
Amazing how old those girls lived to be and how they still were laying a few eggs. When we brought them home they were ten and non of our hens were old enough to lay and they supplied our eggs for several months. Those eggs were huge and several were double yolked. Eggs were so large the EX Lg cartons would not even attempt to close.
We were talking about them at a family reunion and no one realized how old they really were until we were talking to my Aunt who picked up the chicks at the Post Office. Someone ordered them it was back when they did COD , They couldn't pay for them so the Lady at the Post office who bought eggs from Granny called her to see if she wanted them.
My Grandfather had just passed and my Aunt thought it would be great for her to have a group of layers again. So they surprised her with them. 25 White Leghorn Pullets.
That how we knew they were older than dirt......

 

[Red Bird]

Dried crushed egg shells works for me or cut the eggs in half and watch them scurry for it

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I have only one white egg layer. She layed first thing this morning but then tonight we found a whitr thin shelled broken egg in a nesting box. Any ideas? My other hens lay brown and chocolate and green. My 2 green egg layers layed today but not my brown or chocolate. Could this broken thin white egg have been a brown one that wasnt developed or a premature white one?

Hard to say. I had a pullet that was supposed to lay an extremely dark egg (like her breed and sisters) but her first shells were very thin and almost white. After about 3 weeks they finally firmed up and the pigment darkened about the same time.

...
That how we knew they were older than dirt......

Good story.

I have nine Barred Rocks and one of them started laying soft shelled eggs in January & February. I think it was because of a lack of being out in the sunshine. They have one bowl with oyster shells & one with crushed egg shells free choice. I stopped giving them treats & scratch so they just got layer feed. I cut out ACV to only once or twice a week. I got some liquid vitamin D3 and gave them that a couple times a week. Now the eggs are back to normal, but I don't really know if its because of the changes I made, or if its because the days are getting longer.

Any time there are problems, it's a good idea to cut out treats and scratch.