Crazy looking broken eggs

[friendec]

My chicken quit laying eggs a few months ago when she started molting. It seemed like forever, but I no longer see any dropped feathers and her poop is normal as well as her behavior (excepts that she seems always hungry attacking my feet and hands- she had never done this before. But, this week she started laying eggs again. The first one was the shape and size of a pecan--Not her usual large egg. And since that egg- Everyone has been broken, thin shelled and something smushy and yellow inside unlike a yolk and more like a watery yellow piece of cornbread. The second egg looked the same but like two baby eggs- dime size attached to the top of the pecan sized egg and shell so thin it was smushed and yucky. The next four have just been gush. One a day- but never reembling an egg. Not sure now if they are eggs or something else coming out of her. She is choosing to lay them outside of her nest and just randomly by her food dish. She eats and drinks well. Gurgles when she drings though. I can hear it bubble down her tummy as she swallows. Should I be concerned? I am but I have learned to be patient with my chicken. She is almost 1 1/2 years old. Not sure what type. Black with a purple sheen to her and lays brown eggs.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

I don't know what's going on with your hen, but it doesn't sound good to me. I've never heard of anything like it. Jut replying to give you a bump to the top--maybe someone else can help.

 

[raiford921]

I'm interested also. I've been raising chickens all year . 4 1/2 weeks. We have 6 RIR and 4 BR. The RIR are estimated at 16 weeks old and the BR are unknown, they seem to be full hens. I don't know. I do know that some of the BR do not have as full of a comb as others.

Well, we received an egg a week ago that was cracked. Then an egg that was week shelled but the membrane was intact. Then one of our BR had a soft egg that was split open, she layed a similar one two days later, then yesterday she layed an almost hard egg with a soft end. I don't know what this means.

 

[Den in Penn]

raiford921. Your problem could be insufficient calcium in their diet or possibly the older hens are not absorbing it properly. Try giving them a calcium supplement like oyster shell for a while.

 

[raiford921]

Den in Penn, thanks. We've been researching it and I started baking down the egg shells from what we eat and crush it up in their feed. We receive a perfect egg today, but I know it was from another hen. Our hens free range in our backyard, approximately 6,000 square feet, plus grower feed that I have about 2 lbs left and I already have a bag of Layena.

 

[Den in Penn]

A grower feed doesn't have enough calcium for a laying hen, and most pastures don't have a lot of calcium sources this time of year. Once they get on the layer feed it will help. Even with the layer feed, mine free range and get other foods so I keep a source of extra calcium available to them.