Egg laying problem

[jbowen53]

A friend has chickens and they are about 8 months old. One of them lays an "egg" that only has the white and the yolk. Sometimes the membrane will be with yolk, but I was wondering what might cause this and if anyone had any ideas how to help the chicken lay fully develop eggs. They are being fed a premium chicken feed and they mix that with oyster shell. Any ideas or suggestions?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Do you mean the egg is shell-less? or that the membrane between yolk and albumin is brittle?

Oyster shell should be in a sperate dish, not mixed with the feed - but that won't cause it. If only one bird is doing it, not the whole flock, and doing it consistently, it could well be genetic. If its something only seen once or thrice, it could be the result of the chicken "working out the kinks" in its plumbing. Incidence of mistaken eggs - fairy eggs, shell-less eggs, double yolks, etc are MUCH higher in the first months to year of lay than in subsequent years.

Probably not diet related if the whole flock isn't affected, unless the premium feed is whole grains - many flocks fed whole grain will pick out favorites in order of flock dominance, leaving less desirous seeds, grains, etc to those lower on the pecking order, and contributing to imbalances. Feeding as a sprouted or fermented mash will help avoid those issues.