First soft/no shell eggs

DanielleOrbach

Chirping
Jul 15, 2019
95
196
96
Austin, TX
Two laying RIR's about 7 months old, we had one white egg recently that had a rough'ish shell, which we think was one of the RIR's and I just saw a post that the heat can cause them to lay before the bloom is put on the shell. That egg was laid right under the hanging feeder. We just go two soft or no shell eggs that were laid on the ground outside the coop. It was right in front of the door to go back in from their hour or so of free ranging at the end of the day. Both the RIR's had just been in that area. We also have 4 pullets that are about 4 months old, one of them is a Brahma who has been making clucking noises recently and her vent is slightly moist and a little relaxed, and our Blue Plymouth Rock is about the same size as the Brahma and almost making real chicken noises. She was in the nesting box when we went to put them all in the roost area. One was very small and all yolk and pretty moist on the outside, where the other was a good size egg with a thicker membrane/shell but still very soft and it had a good sized yolk as well as white part. I just thought it was interesting and I would share. I did not check the Brahma's vent tonight, but did check Blue's and it was fairly relaxed so I think she is the one who laid the two eggs today.
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It's in the 100s where i am but we are still getting eggs with shells. I havent heard where the heat affects them but the stress might. No shell usually means they dont have enough calcium in their diet. I give mine a selection of oyster shells and alfalfa bales for more protien/calcium. The smaller eggs or even malformed eggs are normal for first time egg layers. Congrats though, it's always fun when they start to lay.
 
you may be right, but my guess would be it's one of your youngsters that laid the smaller of these at least. Do you have oyster shell available?
Yes we have a dish with oyster shell available. I don't think it was one of the younger ones now. I checked their pubic bones and they are way too close together. I think it is just the heat, it has been over 100 for a couple of weeks. We have a fan out there as well as an evaporator cooler.
 
It's in the 100s where i am but we are still getting eggs with shells. I havent heard where the heat affects them but the stress might. No shell usually means they dont have enough calcium in their diet. I give mine a selection of oyster shells and alfalfa bales for more protien/calcium. The smaller eggs or even malformed eggs are normal for first time egg layers. Congrats though, it's always fun when they start to lay.
I checked their pubic bones and they are too close together, so I think it's one of the RIR's. I have read that heat can affect how much they lay and the stress of the heat can affect the shell. I give oyster shell free choice and the food we give has 20% protein which from the reactions I get when I tell people is super high. It resembles scratch, but we just started introducing pellets and I'm not sure about the protein on that. We did have a bit of a problem with stick tight fleas and some mites, so that may have more to do with it than anything, but I'm pretty sure we got rid of those at this point. I had surgery a week ago on my nose so I haven't been able to do much with them and my boyfriend can't check them on his own.
 
Rhode Island Reds lay brown egg shells. someone may just be starting to lay and get the kinks out which can take up to a month I if they have lots to work out, I would make sure they have some free choice calcium such as oyster shell or one of the eggsperts might be able to tell you dosages on other things to raise the calcium
 
Never heard about the heat affecting the egg shells. The heat can affect their laying ability but not the shell, that's a calcium issue. @slordaz stated, a new layer working out the kinks is another possibility.

It made sense when I read the thread about feeding higher protein instead of layer, so I switched to Flock Raiser (20%) with Oyster Shell in a separate dish several years ago ... Haven't had :fl any problems with laying and shell quality.
 
Rhode Island Reds lay brown egg shells. someone may just be starting to lay and get the kinks out which can take up to a month I if they have lots to work out, I would make sure they have some free choice calcium such as oyster shell or one of the eggsperts might be able to tell you dosages on other things to raise the calcium
Yes I know they do, but there was no shell on theses, and the pubic bones on the two that I suspected may have laid them, they were too close together. They have free choice oyster shells already.
 
Never heard about the heat affecting the egg shells. The heat can affect their laying ability but not the shell, that's a calcium issue. @slordaz stated, a new layer working out the kinks is another possibility.

It made sense when I read the thread about feeding higher protein instead of layer, so I switched to Flock Raiser (20%) with Oyster Shell in a separate dish several years ago ... Haven't had :fl any problems with laying and shell quality.
They are on a grower and all flock mix. The grower we have has 20% protein and resembles scratch, and the all flock is pellets, not sure of protein content on that though. Oyster shell is free choice in a dish.
 
Yes I know they do, but there was no shell on theses, and the pubic bones on the two that I suspected may have laid them, they were too close together. They have free choice oyster shells already.
the main reasons for shelless eggs are not enough calcium or for some reason a kink happened and it passed through to fast, those are known as oops or fart eggs. but pubic bones are a good indicator as well as the combs turn brighter red it is rare for them to be starting to lay but in rare occurrences there is an issue and the pelvic bone doesn't open like it should. Remember your ones already laying haven't been laying long, you may see hiccups for around a month once they start laying, just keep an eye on them as internal laying and egg bound could also be found
 

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