Eggs without shell every other day - not in nest box....

[Rachel&Martin]

Hi there - one of Hens is laying a shell-less egg very frequently - I find them on the dropping board below the roost or in the run - not in the nest boxes. She has been doing this for about a month but its now getting more frequent. It started out about once a week and is now roughly every other day. All I find is an empty membrane - no sign of a shell at all - when it happens on the dropping board it is obvious that the 'egg' has ruptured - but I don't know if this is happening in the Hen or on laying...

All of my other 5 girls are laying just fine. They have oyster shell grit in a grit hopper and there is always plenty (2 of my other hens frequently lay eggs with calcium deposits...).

Can anyone suggest a reason why this is happening - and if there is anything I can do about it.

Many thanks
Rachel

 

[Freyadog]

I have one that is doing the same thing. All the other hens are laying fine. I found one just this morning. I thought that it was a glove finger until I picked it up. Noticed that it was also pecked.

 

[horsejody]

I have a geriatric hen that does this too. The only thing you can do is feed good feed and leave out oyster shell. I have found that mine is more likely to have the problem when the weather is bad, and she can't free range. Maybe the calcium in the bugs is better than the oyster shell. Who knows?!

 

[Farmer Kitty]

I had one doing that due to the stress of no light in their coop. The one window is to small for any moon light to come in. I solved it by putting in a nightlight.

So stress of some sort maybe a factor.

 

[Rachel&Martin]

Hi there - thanks for the thoughts - I hadn't heard that chickens could be stressed by lack of moonlight - either that or age could be the problem but I will definately try the night light...as long as it doesn't keep my rooster awake!

 

[suebee]

You're not alone. My 7 silkies have been laying shell-less eggs for the past 2 months. Now they're not laying at all. They free range, get layer crumbles, oyster shell, but still shell-less eggs or no eggs at all. Just can't figure it out. We actually had to buy store bought eggs for the first time in 5 years!

Wanted to add: They do sleep with a night light on also.