Leather eggs??

[krimsonkitty]

I have a few good layers (firm shelled white, brown and green eggs).
But I also have a blue egg layer whose egg shells are very thin or have the calcium bumps on them. I not so worried about her but I have someone else (not sure which one) that is laying a soft, leathery shell. Usually the insides have been eaten when I find them and they are never in the nesting boxes- only layed from her roost. (Picture attached)
I’ve added oyster shells to their diet but it’s doesn’t seem to be helping. I have also found this shell less egg - I’m assuming from the same chicken

 

[BDutch]

This chicken doesn’t make shells anymore. Maybe she had an infection ?
If the other chickens lay good eggs with normal shells, it’s not a lack of calcium.

Sometimes this problems tops after a molt/winter when the chickens stops laying for a few months.

 

[azygous]

It's important to identify the hen that is laying from the roosting perch. She's having a problem absorbing the calcium from oyster shell at present, and she needs to be treated with a calcium concentrate to boost her calcium levels to head off even worse consequences, and those can kill her at their worst.

When I have to identify a hen leaving collapsed shell-less eggs under the perch, I check the lineup after everyone is settled for the night, drawing a diagram of where each hen has staked out her spot on the perch. Next morning, if there's a smashed egg, I match its location with my diagram and I've found my target. If by chance it's a tossup between two hens having left the egg material, I simply treat both hens.

This is what I use because it is absorbed more easily than other forms of calcium, going to work much faster. One tablet, whole, popped into the beak each day until the problem of collapsed eggs resolves.

 

[BDutch]

@azygous , do you have an idea what the chances are , that such a calcium treatment will help?

 

[Weeg]

@azygous , do you have an idea what the chances are , that such a calcium treatment will help?

Very very good chances. The soft shell eggs are being caused by a calcium deficiency, because that is what soft shell eggs are made of, calcium. Since she is deficient in calcium, she is unable to create egg shells that are thick and tough like usual. Treating with Calcium Citrate, the most easily absorbed calcium, should clear the problem up quickly.

 

[azygous]

It's been my experience that the calcium citrate helps in the majority of cases. Maybe nine out of ten hens will go on to lay normal eggs from then on.

In the odd case where the calcium therapy does not result in egg shell improvement, it will at least save the hen's life by helping to get a shell-less egg out where not passing it will kill her. I have such a hen at present. She has been laying a shell-less egg from the roost or in the nest almost every day since spring, and there has been only periodic shell improvement, but then the eggs turn up next day shell-less again.

Each time, I give her a calcium tablet, and that at least keeps her blood calcium at normal levels so she doesn't become a victim of sudden death syndrome from having the shell gland suck all the calcium out of her blood and causing her heart to stop.

 

[BDutch]

From an avian club in the Netherlands I learned that laying shell less eggs often starts after an infection like infectious bronchitis (IB) . And that there is nothing you can do about it.

I’m so sorry not to know this before. Because I had a hen with shell less eggs last year. (The others layed perfectly fine shells). And she probably died because I didn’t treat her individually and properly.

 

[SmiYa0126]

Very very good chances. The soft shell eggs are being caused by a calcium deficiency, because that is what soft shell eggs are made of, calcium. Since she is deficient in calcium, she is unable to create egg shells that are thick and tough like usual. Treating with Calcium Citrate, the most easily absorbed calcium, should clear the problem up quickly.

This will work. Three of my eight hens had a cold, after recovering one kept laying sofy shelled eggs, another one got a reproductive infection. I've been dosing all three and two are laying normally, the third is healing. Highly effective and inexpensive treatment.

 

[vibackyardchicks]

From an avian club in the Netherlands I learned that laying shell less eggs often starts after an infection like infectious bronchitis (IB) . And that there is nothing you can do about it.

I’m so sorry not to know this before. Because I had a hen with shell less eggs last year. (The others layed perfectly fine shells). And she probably died because I didn’t treat her individually and properly.

How do you know it’s infectious bronchitis? And if so, do you cull the bird so it doesn’t spread to the flock?

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

It's important to identify the hen that is laying from the roosting perch. She's having a problem absorbing the calcium from oyster shell at present, and she needs to be treated with a calcium concentrate to boost her calcium levels to head off even worse consequences, and those can kill her at their worst.

When I have to identify a hen leaving collapsed shell-less eggs under the perch, I check the lineup after everyone is settled for the night, drawing a diagram of where each hen has staked out her spot on the perch. Next morning, if there's a smashed egg, I match its location with my diagram and I've found my target. If by chance it's a tossup between two hens having left the egg material, I simply treat both hens.

This is what I use because it is absorbed more easily than other forms of calcium, going to work much faster. One tablet, whole, popped into the beak each day until the problem of collapsed eggs resolves.View attachment 3100001

Would I use one tablet whole for a bantam chicken as well as standard hens?
I've got one doing these eggs even though they have oyster shells and egg shells to choose from.