Hens laying eggs without the hard shell.

[tnmamaw01]

Was wondering if anyone could tell me, a couple of my hens in the past day or so are laying eggs without the hard calcified shell. I was wondering if that could be due to us feeding them too many other foods from the gardens and the kitchen and they are not eating enough of their layer feed and calcium??? We have been really letting them enjoy their fill from the garden and kitchen recently and thought that may be the reason. They have plenty of layer feed and calcium in their feeders, just not eating it. This is our first season raising chickens. Any pointers would be helpful.

 

[chkinut]

are they new layers? often times a new layer will lay an egg (or a few eggs, as in one of my girls) without a shell in the beginning. if they've already been laying regular eggs and the eggs have all of a sudden become shell-less, i would say they are eating too many snacks. is the extra calcium you provide mixed IN with the layer feed? i give my girls Layena in one feeder, and crushed oyster shell in a separate bowl. i would advise feeding them less snacks and also keeping the oyster shell in a separate dish. the hens usually know when they are in need of calcium, and even if they're full on snacks, they will most likely eat the oyster shell. but still, i would feed them less snacks anyway.

 

[teach1rusl]

Well, sometimes their systems just go through a glitch. But since it's happening to more than one hen at the same time, I'd guess maybe it's all the extras, or some other common factor (maybe the heat messing with their systems?). Pretty easy to find out regarding the food - just stop giving the extras for a few days and see if things clear up.

 

[DTRM30]

I would give calcium chips / oyster shell. If they are filling up on goodies and not eating much of the layer feed, then they aren't getting enough calcium. As mentioned earlier, easy to tell, just dont' let them eat so many goodies in the yard and give calcium /oyster shell to eat and you'll know if a few days.

 

[chickenjenni]

Thank you so much, as my girls have been laying [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]shell-less eggs, and have noticed they haven't been eating much of their food, so i'll cut down their snacks ... thank so much [/FONT]