Egg without shell? Whats with this egg...

[DOnSoCalOC]

I haven't noticed any strange behavior with my girls. I don't feed any bread at all. They mostly free range, but they also have their feed and oyster shell always present. I am very stumped, but it makes sense with regards to the whole hormone thing. I am not going to stress it unless I see some very drastic changes. One thing for sure is that our EE is not having any. All the soft shelled are brown eggs, just which one it is is what stumps me.

???

Thank you!

 

[Kaeta44]

A bit more protein in your chicken's diet will help a lot. You can give them this in a number of ways:

Maggots (the sort anglers use)
Meal worms (live or dried)
Fine ground oyster shells
Plain whole yoghurt (once or twice a week)

Providing your chickens are otherwise healthy, the occasional softie is nothing to worry about.

 

[funkychook]

Hi i think one of them has been upset by something. I wrote about the same or similar the other day on here. My buff orpington laid an odd egg half soft and half hard in the morning.

The day before was a lot of noise coming from 2 doors down as she had just got 4 chickens and her dog was going mental and the chickens were sqawking and making a hell of a racket in her garden we could here it in ours like it was in our garden. The next day when Buffy was due to lay she laid this odd egg. I think she was unsettled by the noise since then her eggs have gone back to normal.

 

[fifibreen]

I am not able to notice/observe any behavior, since it has always happened sometime overnight in the roost. I find it under the perch in the morning. I suspect one of my wyandottes, but they have usually re-situated when I come out in the morning, so I have not been able to confirm who it is under. It only seems to happen occasionally, and I am getting normal eggs each day have nice thick shells. They have oyster shell available all the time, and they do get treats like yogurt and cottage cheese, which should supplement calcium.

It is a little frustrating, but hopefully nothing is wrong with any of them, that is my biggest concern. Since it is intermittent, it is harder to find out who is doing it and shy, or what is causing it.

 

[fifibreen]

I can try more protien. They have been eating a lot of worms! But we will give them some additional treats.

 

[Completely Flocked!]

I'd have to go with Christine. I grew up on a farm and my mom called these "fear eggs." She maintained it was from a chicken being scared, chased, or startled during the shell formation process. Some chickens just seem to have a lower tolerance for being startled and I currently have one of these, myself. In my case, it is a lace-wing Wyandotte and when she was first laying, I got about one of these a week! Since we got the better (read: protective and alert) Leghorn, it has stopped entirely. My chickens are, for the most part, free-range and always have access to many calcium-rich greens and oyster shell. Since I've been told those are the other options for soft eggs, I'm going to have to defer to my dear old chicken-guru Mom.

 

[DOnSoCalOC]

My girls had lots of protein today, for sure! We had a rain yesterday, and today my son and I were out back digging up the ground for them...earthworms galore + one "potato bug".

My BGJ laid another softie today, and yesterday her egg was so thin that she stepped on it and it was crushed.

They have oyster shell on the side, free range in my yard nearly all day long, freeze dried mealworms for treats, homemade whole kefir blended with their soy-free organic feed (Countryside Organics, which is 17% protein, 2% fat, 8%fiber), kale, curly parsley, cucumber, tomato, jalapeno/serrano chili seeds and tops, ground up egg shell in their feed, leftover chicken, chopped up hard boiled egg.

Now I am thinking the fear thing. My son, age 11, goes out back and each girl gets caught every day and he holds them for a little bit; he loves them and is gentle with them. I think I am going to tell him to leave them all alone for a few days, see what happens. Other than that...I dunno.

I just remembered that BJG develop slower than other breeds also, so maybe her body is "getting the kinks out". Maybe it is a combination of all of the above!??? We will see what happens over the next few days. BUT I don't think it is just one of the girls, because each one has different eggs and my son can pretty much tell whose it is by the color and the GLW has little white flecks on hers. Funny how the EE has had no problems at all with hers...knock on wood.

 

[fifibreen]

I got another one with a barley hard shell last night. It was under my buff, but she laid a perfectly good egg the day before. She is very laid back. If fear is the answer, then something must be tormenting them while we are gone at work during the day. Or birds are visited by us everyday, and handled with care and love every day. I'm not sure what, since this has never been a issue before. It's still also confusing that fear is only effecting one chicken and not the others, and that this has also not been a long term issue. Maybe one of them lost a few marbles.....

 

[Den in Penn]

Try vitamins. With stress, age, disease, nutrients are not taken up as well.

 

[marybourquin]

Guess what. I had my first soft shell egg this morning. Admittedly she was a bit rushed because I needed to get into her coop before she was finished, so maybe that has something to do with it. However, these 4 chickens have been eating the organic layer feed from Country-Side Organics. Could it be lacking something? I also give them some sort of vegetable every day. Has anyone had trouble after feeding them fresh de-cobbed corn? There might be a connection there?