Hen Laying Weak Shelled Eggs

[LhickenChicken]

Hi all,
I have a hen called Bananito. She is approx one year old, maybe less because I got her as a pullet in June. Last year she laid nice hard shelled eggs but in mid May she started laying real weak shelled eggs. They have lots of oyster shells and ground up limestone to eat, and I give her calcium citrate once every week. She now eats her eggs, and others' eggs.

I can't guess anything that could be wrong. They eat Rolling Acres Layer Feed, from Peavey Mart (tsc in the US, except only one location has cute baby chicks--such a bummer) in Canada.

She is a pretty small chicken, and I thought she was an araucana because she has barely any tail. But I was wrong; I think she is some kind of Cuckoo Marans mix, because she made a Cuckoo Marans cockerel (he looked like one anyway and that's what everyone said). I don't know why she lays white eggs. She is grey with a few whitish specks on her. I will try to get a picture of her but she is really flighty. One more fact she has a pea comb, and lays white eggs. But Tomatilla her sister has a pea comb and lays blue eggs.

I am not looking to keep Bananito anyway, I am just looking to see if there is anything I can do to make her eggshells stronger. Bin is very aggressive. I am wondering if it is something that is communicable between chickens and what can I do about it. If I can fix the problem I may just rehome her.

 

[Saveria]

I had the same problem with some of my hens. It always seems to be the ones that lay almost everyday. I gave them 200mg of calcium citrate with D3 every moring for about 3 weeks. It took them a bit to normalize, but they started having thicker shells. Some other folks may have different dosages that worked for them, this is just what worked for me.

 

[Saveria]

Also, I had to switch to using flaked oyster shell and crushed eggshells. They wouldn't eat the pelleted oyster shell for some reason.

 

[LhickenChicken]

Also, I had to switch to using flaked oyster shell and crushed eggshells. They wouldn't eat the pelleted oyster shell for some reason.

I am using just some crushed oysters shell. and they get crushed eggshells almost everyday.

 

[LhickenChicken]

I had the same problem with some of my hens. It always seems to be the ones that lay almost everyday. I gave them 200mg of calcium citrate with D3 every moring for about 3 weeks. It took them a bit to normalize, but they started having thicker shells. Some other folks may have different dosages that worked for them, this is just what worked for me.

She lays every day, but she probably isn't supposed to.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Up the dosage of calcium, once a week isn't enough. I'd do tablets daily or every other day, and give it a few weeks, to see if that fixes the shelling issue. If it works, you can try to gradually reduce the amount she's getting, like once every three days. If you see the shell thinning again then you'll need to increase the amount of calcium, until you find a happy medium.

 

[LhickenChicken]

Up the dosage of calcium, once a week isn't enough. I'd do tablets daily or every other day, and give it a few weeks, to see if that fixes the shelling issue. If it works, you can try to gradually reduce the amount she's getting, like once every three days. If you see the shell thinning again then you'll need to increase the amount of calcium, until you find a happy medium.

Thanks I will do that.

One question: why is this happening? I have no idea what caused it.

 

[Saveria]

They should not lay every day. It is too much strain on their body and is a common issue with heavy layers. After I treated mine, they laid off and on for two weeks and then took a break. I hope they take a long one to build their stores back up.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Thanks I will do that.

One question: why is this happening? I have no idea what caused it.

Some birds simply have a higher calcium need (and may not want to intake enough to meet those needs), and hopefully that's all it is in this case.

If upping calcium does not improve the issue in a couple of weeks, then it may be an internal problem, like her shelling gland not working properly or not utilizing calcium properly.

 

[LhickenChicken]

Some birds simply have a higher calcium need (and may not want to intake enough to meet those needs), and hopefully that's all it is in this case.

If upping calcium does not improve the issue in a couple of weeks, then it may be an internal problem, like her shelling gland not working properly or not utilizing calcium properly.

Okay, thanks. What would cause shell gland not to work properly?