Egg Quality Issues

[member 593900]

I’ve had some problems with egg quality in my flock recently, and am hoping someone can point me in the right direction.
First, one of my ameraucanas started laying eggs with lots of calcium deposits on top a few months ago (I haven’t actually seen anyone lay, but I’m 99% sure it’s her). She’s older (2-3yrs), so that didn’t really surprise me. Then the eggs started getting more brittle in spite of the excess calcium, and now they’re coming out with holes on the pointy end, and more recently, outright soft shells. Here’s one of her eggs.

Then today, another hen laid an odd egg. This one is a Brahma of unknown age, but my guess is around 1yr. It looks very similar to the eggs my ameraucana was laying leading up to the above photos, except it’s twice as big. This hen usually has a few small calcium deposits on each egg.

I’m not really sure what to make of this. I’ve had other eggs coming out with banding or ombré effects on them, but don’t know if it’s related. Some consideractions:
1. I bought the Brahma and two other hens from an outside flock about 6 weeks ago. They’re been in a quarantine coop 10 ft from my main coop this whole time, but they are nonetheless new additions to be skeptical of. The two others she came with have not laid so far.
2. About 3 months ago, I switched my flock from a local whole grain feed to Scratch and Peck’s new crumble with grub protein.
3. I always have oyster shell and granite grit out for free choice. They get fresh water from a nipple drinker, and most days of the week I also give them half a gallon/day of water with Rooster Booster electrolytes and probiotics in addition to the plain water.
4. They get vegetable and fruit scraps sometimes and I let them out to forage several times a week, but we rarely feed treats.
5. The majority of my flock is in their first year of laying.

Where would you start?

 

[rosemarythyme]

Where did you get the new birds from? You realize that quarantining them 10' away isn't biological quarantine (if that was your intention).

Why the electrolytes and probiotics? Electrolytes especially are not meant for long term use. I personally don't see a need to add probiotics (some feeds include them).

Older birds can definitely have issues with egg quality, but if one is younger that's more unusual. With the oyster shell, do you actually see the birds eating it? Specifically, the problem birds? If not, you might want to try isolating them and giving them a private breakfast:

2-3x a week serve a small bowl (like 1 Tbsp is fine) of wet or fermented feed with oyster shell mixed in. If she does not like chunks of oyster shell, crush it up or use the powdery remnants from bottom of the bag. Should only take her minutes to eat and after that she's free to go.

Assuming her issue is simply insufficient calcium intake, you should see results in a week or two, and you can try reducing it to 1-2x a week and should hopefully continue getting good results. If you still have the same issue, then you might need to try pills of calcium citrate instead for a faster, bigger calcium boost.

If neither works, then you're looking possibly at a shell gland issue.

 

[member 593900]

Where did you get the new birds from? You realize that quarantining them 10' away isn't biological quarantine (if that was your intention).

Why the electrolytes and probiotics? Electrolytes especially are not meant for long term use. I personally don't see a need to add probiotics (some feeds include them).

Older birds can definitely have issues with egg quality, but if one is younger that's more unusual. With the oyster shell, do you actually see the birds eating it? Specifically, the problem birds? If not, you might want to try isolating them and giving them a private breakfast:

2-3x a week serve a small bowl (like 1 Tbsp is fine) of wet or fermented feed with oyster shell mixed in. If she does not like chunks of oyster shell, crush it up or use the powdery remnants from bottom of the bag. Should only take her minutes to eat and after that she's free to go.

Assuming her issue is simply insufficient calcium intake, you should see results in a week or two, and you can try reducing it to 1-2x a week and should hopefully continue getting good results. If you still have the same issue, then you might need to try pills of calcium citrate instead for a faster, bigger calcium boost.

If neither works, then you're looking possibly at a shell gland issue.

Sorry for the delay + thanks for the reply.

The new birds are from a some locals who raise backyard chickens. I realize 10’ isn’t ideal, but it’s what I have to work with, and the alternative is integrating them directly into my flock.

The electrolytes and probiotics are from a single powder, but I chose that intentionally. We have extreme heat in our area and even with ample fresh water, my chickens are prone to getting shriveled, purplish combs when they’re dehydrated. Only electrolytes have consistently fixed that problem. I chose to use a mix with probiotics largely based on this meta analysis that found certain probiotics are effective in reducing heat stress related microflora surpression (in the interest of preventing future micronutrient malabsorption):
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jpn.13454

I’ll definitely try the suggestions, thank you. My ameraucana managed to lay a relatively normal egg yesterday, so perhaps she’s on the up and up!