Hen laying soft shelled eggs constantly!

[easteregges]

I have a Hen that is constantly laying soft-shelled eggs at night! I have a total of nine hens and she is the only one that has this problem. All the other hens have nice and healthy eggs. They have a 20% protein feed that i add ground-up oyster shell to. They also have a trough with regular oyster shells that is always available, and I also add broken-up eggshell to it too. What can I do???

 

[nuthatched]

Some birds have faulty shell glands, there may be nothing to do, unfortunately.

 

[rosemarythyme]

If you know exactly which bird is the problem bird, try giving her daily doses of calcium citrate for roughly 1-2 weeks and see if that makes any difference.

If additional calcium does not help then yes it's likely a shelling gland issue and she can't process calcium correctly or form shells correctly, so no amount of supplementing will help.

 

[Perris]

I have a Hen that is constantly laying soft-shelled eggs at night! I have a total of nine hens and she is the only one that has this problem. All the other hens have nice and healthy eggs. They have a 20% protein feed that i add ground-up oyster shell to. They also have a trough with regular oyster shells that is always available, and I also add broken-up eggshell to it too. What can I do???

you don't say how old she is or how long she's been laying.

I had one do this right through her first year, and I very nearly culled her because I was worried it would lead to egg eating in the flock. But I didn't, and it didn't (it probably helped that I poo pick every morning and cleared it away quickly), and she is now in her 7th year, has been laying good eggs since her second year, is mother to several daughters and a son or two, and is my favourite hen. I don't know what the problem with her shell gland was, but it resolved itself with time. So maybe just wait and see?

And offer the oyster shell and other calcium sources in a separate bowl, rather than adding it to the feed?

 

[easteregges]

If you know exactly which bird is the problem bird, try giving her daily doses of calcium citrate for roughly 1-2 weeks and see if that makes any difference.

If additional calcium does not help then yes it's likely a shelling gland issue and she can't process calcium correctly or form shells correctly, so no amount of supplementing will help.

Thank you.

 

[easteregges]

you don't say how old she is or how long she's been laying.

I had one do this right through her first year, and I very nearly culled her because I was worried it would lead to egg eating in the flock. But I didn't, and it didn't (it probably helped that I poo pick every morning and cleared it away quickly), and she is now in her 7th year, has been laying good eggs since her second year, is mother to several daughters and a son or two, and is my favourite hen. I don't know what the problem with her shell gland was, but it resolved itself with time. So maybe just wait and see?

And offer the oyster shell and other calcium sources in a separate bowl, rather than adding it to the feed?

Thank you. Yes, I offer them oyster shell and some eggshell in a separate bowl too.

 

[easteregges]

If you know exactly which bird is the problem bird, try giving her daily doses of calcium citrate for roughly 1-2 weeks and see if that makes any difference.

If additional calcium does not help then yes it's likely a shelling gland issue and she can't process calcium correctly or form shells correctly, so no amount of supplementing will help.

Ok, thank you. I will try giving her calium citrate.

 

[Mygoose]

I have a hen laying extremely soft eggs also, and they have plenty of oyster shells to eat! What to do about that?

 

[rosemarythyme]

I have a hen laying extremely soft eggs also, and they have plenty of oyster shells to eat! What to do about that?

You don't mention if you've seen the bird in question actually eating the oyster shell.

 

[Mygoose]

You don't mention if you've seen the bird in question actually eating the oyster shell.

Exactly! I don’t think she is eating them How to make her eat them?