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Hmm. Relatively speaking, the occasional thin-shelled egg is normal. But if you are noticing a trend that your egg shells are lacking strength, a few things come to mind: 1. Nutrition At least 90% of your layers’ total diet should be the complete layer feed. Extra grains, treats or scraps can dilute the balanced nutrition of the layer feed and may leave the birds subclinically deficient in several nutrients, especially calcium. Balanced nutrition can also help maintain adequate bird body condition. Birds that are overweight or underweight are known to produce lower quality eggs and can even stop production all together. 2. Bird breed and age It is not uncommon for high-producing breeds to produce an occasional soft egg. This happens because they can produce eggs faster than the actual shelling process. It usually takes 24 hours for an egg to be developed; every now and then, high-producing breeds can actually produce an egg in less than 24 hours, which can result in a soft-shelled egg. Older birds are also known to be culprits for soft egg shells. As chickens near the end of their productive years (4-5 years old), they become less efficient at converting nutrition to high quality eggs. Also, their eggs tend to get larger but are covered with the same amount of calcified shell, meaning the shell must be thinner. If you have an older flock, you may want to think about introducing some younger birds to make sure you are collecting plenty of quality eggs. 3. Other thoughts Individual birds may occasionally have shell-gland issues, or a bird low in the dominance ranking may not get quite enough to eat, particularly during cold weather when birds ramp up their intake to help stay warm. These issues can contribute to the occasional shell quality issue. Hope this helps!
