Eggs with soft shells

[larsand]

Hi All,

Our girls recently started laying - yay! Most eggs are normal, but some have soft shells. The last couple of days the pattern has been the same. I lock them in at night, no eggs anywhere, I open the coop in the morning, and I see one or two eggs with soft shells at the floor of the coop on top of the bedding. I of course eliminate them immediately, and don't think we yet have an egg-eating problem. To me, it's almost as if one or two of the girls feel the need to pass something soft during the night, they think it's poop so they do their business, but it turns out it's a soft-shelled egg. Is this hypothesis right? If not, they come down from their roost pole, and lay an egg under the other chickens instead of going into a nesting box - that seems crazy. The question is what to do? I switched them from a grower to an organic layer crumble (more calcium) earlier in the week, and today mixed some crushed oyster shells into their feed and also made a container of oyster shells available for them. I'm hoping the ones who need more calcium will have the instinct to eat it. Is there anything else I can do? How quickly should this clear up, assuming they eat the shells? Does it translate into harder egg shells immediately, or ...??? Appreciate any help.

Thanks,

Lars

 

[topdog24]

They will naturally start eating some of the oyster shells from the extra container, you should see results within 2 to 4 days if they eat it, also give them access to sand with small pebbles, like from a creek bed or wash, store brand like for sand box will work if it's not too clean, chickens require some grit in their craw to help pulverize seeds and other hard foods, such as corn chops, and oyster shells.