My 6 month old BR just started laying a little over 2 weeks ago. She laid two or three normal eggs then she started having problems. She acted really strange - not walking around, just standing in one corner of the coop, staring off into the woods. When I would let all the girls (5 hens) out in the morning, she would slowly make her way out and not stay with the others, like normal. She would hide under something and stand still for a long time. DH and I checked her vent and all was clear, but when he lightly pressed on her stomach, clear fluid poured out. There was no yellow fluid, only clear. Later that day, the "shell" of a soft-shell egg was hanging out of her vent. She spent over an hour trying to get it out - she sat in some dirt and her tail was going up and down repeatedly. I finally moved her back to the coop with hopes she would be more comfortable and she was able to get it out. Since then she has been fine except for soft-shelled eggs. Some days I think she has two of them. I've found a few whole ones (but soft) and some that are broken open and I can see the yellow juice on the floor of the coop or nest boxes. I feed them Purina Layena pellets and give a mixture of cracked corn/bird seed/oyster shell throughout the day. I cut back to just oyster shell, hoping she would eat some, but she has no real interest in it (really none of them do). Today, I bought some calcium gluconate (23% solution) at TSC and put 1 tablespoon in with their 1 gallon waterer. Any other ideas and does this seem like enough of the calcium gluconate in the water? I also give treats in the evening, usually a bowl with a mixture of yogurt/pasta/fresh fruit (no citrus)/sweet potatoes, when they go back into their coop.
Put her (them) on a strict diet of water and Layena layer feed only. Nothing else for a week. No treats, no snacks, no scratch. Whatever they find and eat while outside, fine, but that's it. That is all you can do. Pumping calcium is not an answer. Shells are not an answer, although they are offered as such by many posters here. In the future, after the test is over, pellets should constitute 90% of the diet. It sounds a bit overboard of alternative feeds, with pellets making up only 1/3 of their diet. If she is ever to master laying, she will within 10-12 days. If she doesn't lay a normal egg, but her coop mates do, then Houston, you have a problem. A hen with malfunctioning ova factories. Many pullets begin with some issues, but they usually get it right within a week or two.
