Hen laying a soft clear egg????

[Freyadog]

I have a hen(believe she is an older hen) that once a month gives us a regular egg the rest of the time she gives us a soft membraned type egg with out a shell. Well I guess that soft thing is the shell. Anyway she gets the laying mash, laying grit etc. like all the other hens get. Does anyone have a clue why this is happening. Is she just too old to lay a proper egg w/shell?

 

[hwerner]

do you give her oyster shell? It helps keep the egg shells nice and firm. We forgot to give our's oyster shell once and we had eggs like this. Just a thought.

 

[AllChookUp]

Another vote for oyster shell for calcium, and maybe some other calcium-laden stuff like PLAIN yogurt. If you don't see an improvement in a week or two, then you may have cause for worry.

 

[portlandpeeps]

One of our hens was doing the same thing. I gave them all access to oyster shell 24/7 and it stopped.

 

[AllChookUp]

OK - This is TOO weird. After I responded to Frey's post yesterday, I went home and checked on the chickens. Due to the heat (I think) they've been laying very few eggs lately.

I was all excited because I spied an egg in one of their boxes! They I reached to take it out, and Ewww! The egg looked nice and white in color, but the shell was almost gelatinous. It just fell apart in my hand.

I know my chickens are getting enough calcium - egg shells, oyster shells, I had even given them a large bowl of plain yogurt the night before.

What gives?!?

 

[portlandpeeps]

That is REALLY strange AllChookUp!

If it's really hot where you are, that could be the problem too.

It was also hot here when our hen was laying shell-less eggs. I'm not sure if it was the hot weather or lack of enough oyster shells (or a combination of each) that caused the weird eggs.

Today it's actually raining and 61 degrees!!

 

[AllChookUp]

It's 91 and really humid here. Has been that way for a while. I've gotta believe it's the heat. I hope it improves.

 

[Shannonwbl]

Glad I found this thread!

My 3 of our 6 started laying a few weeks ago and we have had beautiful thick shelled eggs from the beginning. The last two days I have found several shell-less eggs or yolk spots where shell-less eggs had been squished. I didn't think they were eating the eggs because there was no evidence of any shell at all. I check for eggs 4 or more times a day (I'm new and excited) and I was getting worried. They have unlimited access to oyster shells, layer feed, fresh water and they free range all day. The last few days we have had temps from 98-102 (plus the heat index which has put us around 111 with humidity).

Could the weird eggs be from the heat? They hang out in the breezeway of my horse barn where the fans are blowing during the day, but is there something else I should do to?

I have also worried they might start eating the shell-less eggs just because they are there and create a bad habit. Is that a possibility? I feel like I am running to the coop constantly!

 

[Freyadog]

Update on the hen with the gelatin like shelled egg. Still doing same thing even with access to oyster shell.

 

[eggchicken master]

how old is she?