Jelly egg again! Tell me this will stop.

[3scorpios]

I've read a few posts here about soft eggs, or eggs w/o shells, but there seemed to be a lot of conflicting info. One of my girls laid a "jelly egg" 2 or 3 days ago and today I got another one. I thought the first one was just a fluke, no big deal....but now there's another. I have six hens and have no idea which one is laying the soft eggs. They are fed well, free range all day, continuous supply of laying mash and oyster shells plus lots of healthy treats. We have a light on a timer so they are getting 14 hours of light each day. Please tell me this will stop and I don't have a problem hen.

 

[galanie]

You won't hear it from me. She might need more calcium than the others need. I have one that was doing that exact thing then stopped laying completely. But I forgive her, it is winter after all and she's over a year old. Maybe she just needs a rest.

 

[3scorpios]

Mine are all under a year old. I wonder how common this is.

 

[bobbieschicks]

I am exactly where you are! I know and feel your frustration.

I have 1 pullet that's old enough to lay - she started on Thanksgiving Day with a perfectly hard shelled but small egg. The next 5 days we got an egg - each one got bigger and still the shell was hard. Then she skipped a day. Then she laid a softshell. Then she skipped another day. Laid a hard shell. Yesterday I found 2 softshell eggs in the manure box! It's driving me crazy. I added a light that goes on at 5am-7am then 4-7pm and I did switch her to layer food - Purina Layena w/Omega 3 and added free choice of oyster shell to her diet starting this past Saturday. I'm hoping the changes will help - I know she's young - she will be 21 weeks old this Saturday.

I was told it is because she is young that she's having issues with her eggs. Her body should adjust to the laying feed and oyster shell - hopefully within the next couple of weeks she'll start laying regular eggs again.

It doesn't help that she's the only layer we have. The rest of my flock of pullets are 17 weeks old (yesterday) and 8 weeks old (today). So I have awhile before I get any additional egg laying happening. Hang in there - she will regulate soon - at least the days will start lengthening again in late February

 

[3scorpios]

Since we were getting 6 eggs a day about 50% of the time, I'm assuming this hen was laying good eggs until now. It's possible she's the last hen to start laying, but even so she would have been laying for at least a couple months now. 5 of our hens are about 8 months old and one is about 10 months old.

 

[LT]

All of my girls laid beautiful eggs for the first week or several weeks, so I thought they weren't going to lay the weird eggs I had read about on here. But we have had several dropped from the roost, even though they are usually all laid in the nest box with perfect, hard shells so I just chalk it up to new layers. They have been laying since September and October, but that is still relatively new for layers. They will get it worked out.

 

[bobbieschicks]

I'm following your posts - hopefully I can glean something for my own situation. My Snow White laid another softshelled egg overnight. I'm tracking when she lays and what she lays. And I'm praying it's just her young age that is the trouble.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=7993556#p7993556

 

[funkychook]

Quote:
Very common especially with young birds and the winter arriving too.

I had this problem with one of my girls and I spoke to my chicken expert friend who told me as long as they have good food, oyster shell they should be fine. He said sometimes it happens when the bird has been upset, or is their first stab at laying.

Just to be on the safe side I have added supplement extra D3 which helps the chickens absorb the calcium. I was worried that one of my chickens is a bit bullied and might not be eating probably but my mate assured me all my chickens looked extremely healthy and the one I thought might be laying the soft egg is not laying, he said you can tell by the colour of the crowns and wattles if they are laying or not.

He actually told me I was doing really well with my girls because really they would normally stop laying now.

Perhaps add this supplement to their drinking water once a month if your worried it certainly wont do them any harm and they are more likely to all get it in the water.

Its stressful isnt it...I do worry about them.

 

[Judy]

Here's a bunch of info on egg defects. It's set on the shell-less egg page.

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/publi...ndbook/16/thinshelled-eggs-and-shellless-eggs

 

[bauers chicks]

I have similar problems sometimes. I had some turkey food left over from my Thanksgiving experiment and feed some to the hens at around a 2:1 ratio (2 measures of layer pellets to 1 measure of turkey). The turkey feed has 19-20% protein and that may help as a winter supplement. I didn't keep track with notes, but I think the eggs have a bit stronger shell, and I haven't gotten any of the soft-shelled jelly eggs. I also get more eggs, but get a smashed one every so often. My 9 hens are 3 years old, but still put out about 2-3 dozen per week. I also got one of the daylight bulbs to give them a few extra hours of "sun". I do get thinner shells when I forget to mix the oyster shell with their feed.