Hen keeps laying leathery eggs.

[Poultry Kitten]

Hey there! I have a little concern about one of my hens. Lately, she has been laying eggs with just a leathery skin covering them. I'm not sure if this is something I should be worried about or if it's normal for this to happen multiple days in a row. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

How old is this hen? What do you feed, including treats?

 

[Poultry Kitten]

I estimate the chicken to be around 2 years old. I feed them a combination of eggs, oyster shells, mealworms, corn, and various vegetables. The main source of their diet is layer hen pellets.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I would suggest cutting back on the treats or eliminating them entirely for a week or two to see if that resolves the problem.. She should just have her commercial pellets, plus grit annd oyster shell in separate containers. What we want to do is make sure she is getting complete, balanced nutrition to start with. The more snacks and treats she fills up on, the less of the balanced diet she's getting. Those extras are like cake and ice cream to a kid. If she's still laying faulty eggs after a week or so, then something else is causing it. You can also give her extra calcium in the form of calcium citrate tablets with Vitamin D, available at any grocery or drug store, one tablet daily. Just pop one in her beak and she will swallow it. You can pull down gently on her wattles and she will open up.

 

[Poultry Kitten]

Thank you for helping my hen with her egg-laying issues. I am happy to report that she is now producing healthy eggs with sturdy shells.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Thank you for helping my hen with her egg-laying issues. I am happy to report that she is now producing healthy eggs with sturdy shells.

That's wonderful news! Did this problem fix itself spontaneously, or did you do something that helped?

 

[Poultry Kitten]

I started to give her extra oyster shells so maybe that had something to do with it.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

If you can just keep a bowl of oyster shells available all the time, the hens that need it will help themselves. I have 20+ hens and I keep oyster shell and grit both in gravity-feed cat-food dispensers so I don't have to think about it, just check every month or two to see if they need to be topped off.