My Hen is laying soft eggs!!!

[Peachesbabychick]

Hello. My buff orp hen, keeps laying soft eggs that have no shell. Do you think she needs more calcium? I try to provide my flock with yogurt but is there anything else I should supplement for calcium?

Thanks very much!

 

[Lynndaybrown]

Be sure she has oyster shell available. Your local feed store should have some.

 

[top of the hill]

One of my RIR's laid a soft egg a few days ago, I immediatly put out a bowl of oyster shell. Some say you can crush up the egg shells and feed them back to the hens. Not sure that would be enough though.

 

[Carolyn]

If she is young, I would not worry about it if she is also laying regular eggs part of the time. I would definitely up the calcium. I have always fed crushed egg shells and that with laying pellets, have never had a soft shell except from a new hen. I bought a bag of oyster shell 3 or 4 yrs ago, but my hens rarely touch it.

If all her eggs are soft and she is in with other hens laying normal eggs I would be concerned something might be wrong with her. Can you isolate her and feed a calcium rich diet for a week or so to see if that helps? Oyster shell, crushed egg shells, yogurt or cottage cheese, green leafys, etc. If that does not improve the situation then you might consider culling her.

 

[Peachesbabychick]

I have oyster shells out for them. Your right they don't hardly touch them. I will give her milk, cottage cheese, crushed egg shell and yogurt and see if that helps. She lays both hard and soft eggs and she is 2 years, I would NEVER cull my precious Angela!!! No way!

Thankyou for your help.

 

[Markb2004]

Hi, I just got 3 hens 2 weeks ago, they all laid last week perfect
Eggs, today when I checked there were 3 eggs all soft
One looked fully formed but soft, the other 2 were
Just like yokes. They get pellets greens and fresh water.
Up until today all eggs have been good. Any ideas ?
Btw they are young hens and are just laying.

 

[areilly143]

My hen just laid a soft shell egg this morning. She is new to laying so I'm not too worried about that part, but what do I do with the soft shell egg??

 

[KayTee]

I've had soft shelled eggs that I hardboiled, then mashed up and gave it back to them. Mine absolutely love boiled eggs! (Don't let them eat it raw though, or they may start to develop a taste for their own eggs). I've had a couple of soft eggs that were broken - I just chucked them into the compost heap (the one that the girls don't have access to).