Large variance in egg laying behavior and quality, anything else we can do to help her?

[Bawkbok]

We have a Cinnamon Queen, 8 months age, been laying for 66 days. For the first 34 days she was laying a perfect egg same time every day. For the past month, these are the issues we're seeing:

-- Skipping a day all together
-- next day will be two eggs, one right after the other, one semi-hard, the 2nd a soft shell usually broken, laid within a minute of each other. This has occurred several times over the past few weeks.
-- a lash egg found in the run, followed by a hard shelled egg
-- egg laying time inconsistent now from overnight (finding at first light in nest) to evening time
-- hard shelled eggs missing the paint department and almost devoid of color, but not white
-- First 30 days, consistent weights of 2.0-2.4 oz // past month weights vary from 2.4 - 3.5 oz!! Several double yolk eggs weighing 3.4-3.5 - huge dinosaur eggs! They don't even fit in an egg carton.

She eats a TON of oyster shells every day. I am refilling that trough about 3x weekly. When she skips laying for a day we start her with Calcium D3, 400 mg for several days. Food is Kalmbach 20% all flock. No changes in diet.

Questions:
Should we provide a Calcium supplement every day for an extended period? Provide no calcium at all?

We buy the OS from the local feed store, 50 lb. bag. Could the OS be deficient in quality? Is there a 'better' option for OS we should be considering to keep up with her functional demands?

What else could or should we be doing to help her get back to consistency? Or am I dreaming since she is a production breed?

Severe increase in temperature and triple digit heat indices and stressful construction noise, heightened activity close by past three weeks - would this be an impact?

Poops look good, activity normal.

Thanks for any insight and advice.

 

[FarmerGirl101]

How many chickens are in there with her? Could it be that the weird eggs may be from another chicken? She is still early in laying so it is normal for consistency issues and for egg size to vary. Stress can also cause issues. Also, I would not be concerned with laying time as it will not be the same every day.

How do you feed the oyster shells? Is it in a container that has a hefty serving or a small portion? You should not be needing to refill it 3x a week even if you aren't feeding a layer feed. That is incredibly excessive. Does she know where the food is?

Reproductive issues can also cause issues but normally those develop when they are older, not at 8 months. If it were me I would switch to a layer feed from a name brand like purina, nutrena, dumor, or another well known brand for the time being. I've had issues with poor feed quality that lowered the nutritional value of the feed. This reflected in thin shelled eggs that were constantly broken. All flock is still a good option normally but right now I would test something new out while you figure out what is causing the issue.

 

[Bawkbok]

How many chickens are in there with her?

We have four - the others lay at the same time every day give or take 15 minutes. They are very consistent in color and quality. The CQ is the only one laying dark brown eggs. I watch them closely enough to know who is on nest at any time of the day when they enter and when they emerge. I'm pretty 'obsessed' with keeping an eye on them to know behavior, habits and health.

The four of them have 150 sq. ft. of run space plus 6 or more hours of yard time every day.

This morning, while out roaming, is when our queen laid two eggs, right at my feet. She couldn't make it back to the coop in time, I guess.

The OS container holds approximately one cup of OS. There is only one other chicken that eats it from what I've seen. I know for a fact another one never ever touches it.

The food is available from sun up to sun down in the middle of the run. They all know where it is and feed at will throughout the day.

I switched from regular all flock feed to non-GMO; I haven't searched receipts to see if the timing is about when these issues began. Switching to non-GMO is due to my health issues with eating eggs. Do you think this switch might have something to do with it?

Thanks for your reply. I appreciate your insight.