Just went out to check chickens after dark. Found an egg laying in the nest box without a shell and without the outer layer. Looks like I cracked an egg on the bedding in the nest box just like you would to fry it. Found one yesterday that had a thin shell-less layer in the same nest box. Few days ago found a shell-less egg with thin layer in the same next box. There are 5 chickens in the coop and have been getting eggs from several weeks from them (not sure if from all of them). Thought they all had started laying. They hatched in April of this year. Seem to be finding these later in the day or even after dark. Does anyone know what is happening? I know that chickens will often lay a shell-less egg when they first start laying but did not know they could lay an egg without the outer layer (just yolk and white).
Start giving them some oyster shell. I put mine in with their feed - others put it in a separate feeder. They're still pretty new/young layers and having more frequent "malfunctions". The oyster shell with give them the extra calcium to make good strong shells. It's very cheap and a little goes a long way!
I agree - try offering oyster shell...or you can crush up egg shells for the same purpose. I offer it free choice in a small, separate container. Give it a shot and see if things improve.
The Purina feed we feed has calcuim added to it already. We have not had any other chickens laying the strange eggs. Can extreme cold and a change in coops cause this? Also, they were free ranging in our yard until just a little more than a week ago and something came into the yard and killed one of the pullets. So, we had to shut them up until we could make them a day yard. I guess we will have to buy some oyster shell just in case. Edit: I also wash all eggs we eat and bake them in the oven and give them back to the chickens. We missed eating eggs for a couple of morning last week but otherwise we eat about 8 eggs or more a day. They love the egg shells.
