My 1 y/o EE Has a Laying Issue and I Don't Know What to Do

[buffy-the-eggpile-layer]

I'm hoping someone might be able to help with an ongoing laying issue I've been having with my EE, who is just over 1 year old. When she first started laying, she had intermittent issues with laying thin-shelled and shell-less eggs, sometimes back-to-back. After a month or so, she seemed to have ironed out the kinks and ended up being our most prolific layer, rarely taking a day off (if ever). Sometimes we'd even get two in a day. We called her our "bullet-dropper" because her eggs were quite big for her tiny size, and had extremely hard shells.

Fast-forward to this Spring, and her old troubles seem to have come back. Her rock solid eggs started looking slightly abnormal (bumpy, not quite uniform, slightly paler) then she went on to lay thin-shelled eggs from her roost every morning. No matter how early we'd wake up, it was always too late: we'd open the door and find the girls munching on her thin-shelled egg bomb. Then, she stopped laying for about a week. I'd been upping her calcium supplementation (oyster shell free choice and a dose of calsorb daily), and that seemed to trigger her to start laying her normal "bullets" every single day for another week or so.

Sadly it didn't last. For the last week now she's been back to laying a thin-shelled roost egg daily. Sometimes she still goes into the box in the morning as if she still sense she should be laying (even though she just laid a thin-shelled egg in her sleep). Poor thing. This time I'm really having no luck breaking the cycle, not with supplementation of calcium, protein, rooster booster, ACV, supplements, etc. (these things all tried intermittently).

I worry she has a defective shell gland which I know doesn't bode well. Otherwise, it could also be stress. By nature, she's wound super tight (or hormonal?) compared to the others. Her energy levels are always through the roof like she is about to pop at any given time. She loves to fly around and does get bossy from time to time--acting like that friend at the bar that's always saying "hold me back, hold me back." Beyond her egg laying issues she acts normally, scratches around, eats, drinks, poops, etc. Sometimes I notice her comb/wattles are a bit paler than the others but as soon as she gets excited about something they'll always get red again. From day 1 she was the most petite of our flock--small but mighty. Not sure if her size makes laying extra hard on her.

I'm at a loss as to what to do at this point. Of course, she is my special girl, and the cuddliest (loves her belly rubs!!). Has anyone experienced anything similar? Any tips?

 

[azygous]

Her young age doesn't bode well for an easy fix. But it's worth a try. I have an EE who has a similar problem, and even looks like yours. She's a bit older, but she's gone through all of the grief that poor egg quality can cause. The double egg laying (not to be confused with double yolks) is especially worrisome since it can set up a hen for egg binding and infection.

The calcium you're using, both the oyster shell and the Calsorb, are too low a dose to be of much help in this situation. Get some people calcium tablets, at least 400-550mg or higher concentration and give her one per day for a while and see if that "resets" her laying.

High dose calcium can reset the 25 hour egg cycle and help to restrict it to one egg at a time. It can help prevent the shell-less eggs that are difficult to pass and that are more likely to get stuck, even rupturing inside, causing infection. Continue the daily calcium tablets until the eggs are coming one each cycle and are of decent shell quality.

 

[buffy-the-eggpile-layer]

Her young age doesn't bode well for an easy fix. But it's worth a try. I have an EE who has a similar problem, and even looks like yours. She's a bit older, but she's gone through all of the grief that poor egg quality can cause. The double egg laying (not to be confused with double yolks) is especially worrisome since it can set up a hen for egg binding and infection.

The calcium you're using, both the oyster shell and the Calsorb, are too low a dose to be of much help in this situation. Get some people calcium tablets, at least 400-550mg or higher concentration and give her one per day for a while and see if that "resets" her laying.

High dose calcium can reset the 25 hour egg cycle and help to restrict it to one egg at a time. It can help prevent the shell-less eggs that are difficult to pass and that are more likely to get stuck, even rupturing inside, causing infection. Continue the daily calcium tablets until the eggs are coming one each cycle and are of decent shell quality.

Thank you for the advice. What's your delivery method for the tablet? Do you crush it up? She loves to eat except when she thinks I'm up to something.

 

[azygous]

Chickens swallow larger things than pills. I just slip it into the beak whole.

 

[moniquem]

I also have an EE with this problem. Last spring one of the eggs broke inside of her, what a mess. She didn't lay for about a month after that. This year I have been giving her crushed tums twice a week and have had no problems. I also cut out most of the treats so she has to eat her food, I feed Purina Layena with oyster shell supplements.

 

[buffy-the-eggpile-layer]

I also have an EE with this problem. Last spring one of the eggs broke inside of her, what a mess. She didn't lay for about a month after that. This year I have been giving her crushed tums twice a week and have had no problems. I also cut out most of the treats so she has to eat her food, I feed Purina Layena with oyster shell supplements.

I'm so glad she's ironed out the kinks--that gives me hope! She's lucky to have bounced back from the broken egg, that's one of my biggest fears. Maybe I'll try the tums routine after a week or so of higher dose calcium. I wonder if EEs are more prone to this? Most threads I looked up with similar problems were EE-related... Probably confirmation bias or something.

@azygous I picked up calcium + vitamin D soft gels, 1200mg (all they had) so I'm going to try to halve them and get her regimen going.

Happy to report she did lay a perfectly formed egg in the nesting box today. I'm hoping it'll keep up w/the calcium supplementation.

 

[azygous]

The calcium supplement is for the short term, no longer than a few weeks at a time. If you begin to see bumpy deposits on the eggs, she's had enough calcium.