many many soft shelled eggs

[lawatt]

The laying of shell less eggs continues. At this point the egg looks like a normal yoke in a clear sack with a 3" long stem that looks like an umbilical cord. Most are layed from the roost but we have found a few in the nest box.

Due to an unfortunate combination of dusting in newly tilled heavy clay soil followed by wading at the bubblier I had to give both RIR's baths today to remove the giant chunks of dried clay from their butt and chest feathers. While I was bathing them I realized they are both slightly wheezy. They are not sneezing or having any nasal discharge, but maybe it's just that I just caught this early because I was bathing them?

Could the daily shell less eggs be related to a viral URI? The other hens don't have any URI symptoms.though, after 4 eggs a day for over a month, we have only been getting one egg a day for the past week, so they are all off laying right now.

just chiming in on this, as one of my young girls (started laying maybe 2 months ago?) is now laying soft-shelled eggs, always from the roost -- when i heard an egg song at 5am this morning before it was even light, i went down to the coop & found the third or fourth soft-shelled egg in a row on the coop floor directly beneath this one particular girl, so i know it's her -- i had been concerned that the flock was starting to egg-eat, but this was intact except "broken" by the fall from the perch.

wondering if you'd found any solution, or did your hen just improve with time? mine already eats layer feed with calcium plus has oystershell available, gets yogurt now and then, etc., and seems otherwise very healthy. she's a cream legbar/penedenesca cross.

 

[deeschicks19]

Besides the oyster shells that mine always have I give them plain yogurt every other day. The LOVE it. I just put spoonfuls on a plate and they are so funny when they eat it cuz they will get it all over their face. But I just get a cheap off brand to give them. Figured that is good for their digestive system and the calcium.

 

[aggiemae]

Today was the fist day in a long time that Buffy, the soft shell layer, had a normal egg.

About three weeks ago she seemed to be having a (slow and light) molting but the soft shelled eggs continued. I was feeding her extra protein daily and a cooked egg with the shell blended in every 2nd day, but nothing I did really made any difference. I noticed she started to look less stress and that her comb was brighter on Friday and since Sunday she has been visiting the next box a few times a day. today we had an egg with a very thick and rough shell... so maybe I overdid it on the calcium. Hopefully she has turned a corner.

 

[lawatt]

Today was the fist day in a long time that Buffy, the soft shell layer, had a normal egg.

About three weeks ago she seemed to be having a (slow and light) molting but the soft shelled eggs continued. I was feeding her extra protein daily and a cooked egg with the shell blended in every 2nd day, but nothing I did really made any difference. I noticed she started to look less stress and that her comb was brighter on Friday and since Sunday she has been visiting the next box a few times a day. today we had an egg with a very thick and rough shell... so maybe I overdid it on the calcium. Hopefully she has turned a corner.

good to hear that she's improved! my silly girl is still laying soft-shelled eggs in her sleep, up on the perch -- will give her some time & hope it all works itself out...

 

[aggiemae]

good to hear that she's improved! my silly girl is still laying soft-shelled eggs in her sleep, up on the perch -- will give her some time & hope it all works itself out...

Could she be molting?

 

[lawatt]

Could she be molting?

no, she's only 8-9 months old, and her feathers all looks fabulous -- so it's not that...

 

[lawatt]

and an update: yesterday i did not see a soft-shelled remnant in the henhouse, and later in the day i found a green-colored (she's an OE) almost-egg, had a hard shell but shaped like a crescent instead of an oval. but that seems like an improvement!

 

[aggiemae]

and an update: yesterday i did not see a soft-shelled remnant in the henhouse, and later in the day i found a green-colored (she's an OE) almost-egg, had a hard shell but shaped like a crescent instead of an oval. but that seems like an improvement!

When the days are long sometimes a 2nd egg will start to form and push out the first, not yet fully formed, egg. As long as you are getting some normal eggs this will work it's self out, My problem with Buffy was that she tarted to lay only unformed eggs in March when the days were still relatively short and did nothing else for most of 3 months.