Egg Shell is paperthin, almost rubbery?

[Youneek Farm]

Hi there, I am new to the forum but I've lurked on the site for awhile. I have a 2 yr old sexlink hen that has been laying strange eggs for about a week now. The first one I found was right as she got off her egg and it had split open due to such a thin shell. The yolk and egg white looked normal and I threw it out. Since then, I see the traces of the same egg problem but someone is obviously eating the yolk. I have to clean out the gooey straw with egg white each day. Twice more I've found the thin shell but they seem to be eating that other times as well.

Any idea what I should be concerned about? Could it have gotten into something bad? Sick? I have 4 hens this color (they all look the same so I don't know which one is laying them). I have 12 chickens in all, 6 hens the same age and 6 pullets. I'm puzzled

Thanks for any advice you have.

 

[CMV]

Calcium deficiency. Feed them some oyster shells or their own eggshells ground up fine.
Sometimes stress will also cause this. Anything new going on?

 

[Youneek Farm]

Well, I would have thought the calcium but the others seem to be OK. Also, I do put oyster shell out for the hens but I have had to move it to a spot they like to dust bath in as I read the pullets can't have access to the oyster shell. The other thing is that my 10 week old pullets have been moved into the coop for maybe the past 2 weeks. I guess that could be stressing them out (though they bully the pullets around for sure).

Today I got two wierd eggs so now it's "spreading". My worry had been they had gotten into something poisonous or something while free ranging.

Do you think I can put the oyster shell in the coop with the pullets in there or keep it out? Thanks!

 

[Judy]

Read here:

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/publications/1/egg-quality-handbook/38/preface

The hen may have a problem with handling calcium that the others don't. Stress could certainly be a factor, I agree.

I have read on here you can put oyster shell out for those who need it, and the ones who don't, won't mess with it. No personal experience here. Pullets before laying age should not be eating oyster shell, true, but I suspect they will not, if you don't actually mix it in with their feed.

I would be really, really surprised if this had anything to do with something they got into while free ranging. My free ranging hens have been very healthy and productive. Not to say it could not happen, of course.

 

[Judy]

Also, you will have to deal with the egg eating. Ideally, identify the hen who is eating the eggs, and separate her; hopefully it is the one laying the soft shell eggs. The threat here is that, once they get the taste of eggs, you could have a flock of egg eaters, and frankly, they are not good for much but chicken soup. Rollout nests have solved that problem for some, though.