Need advice on hen laying eggs with no shell

[lilcheeks]

I currently have 4 chickens, all of which turned 3 years old this past month. None of them laid much during winter this year as we only got about 2 eggs a week or so. Now that Spring has come, the chickens have started laying again but one of my Road Island Reds is laying either broken or shell-less eggs. It started about 3 weeks ago, and it was a broken egg almost every day in the nesting box. Over the past week, I haven't noticed any shell, just a broken egg roughly 5 days a week (maybe she's eating the shell now??). All the chickens look healthy and act normal. I have oyster shells available to them all day every day. I asked my local feed store for advice and they told me to try plain yogurt, which I know will get mixed reactions here, but I wanted to follow their advice so I could say I tried it. Well, after giving them a few scoops every other day for the last week, nothing has changed. Thoughts? Is there a medication i should try? Is it possible she is too old to lay properly? having to clean and change the nesting box almost every day is getting really old and i'll try almost anything to correct it.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Could be they are egg eating. Broken eggs will often be eaten up. Are your nestboxes well bedded?

What feed type are you feeding? I prefer something with higher protein than layer to keep my hens from becoming deficient. I keep a separate bowl of oyster shells for the extra calcium needs.

Eggshells do become more thin as the season progresses, as well as older hens can have more brittle shells. 3 years isn't ancient, but she would be considered mature.

Where are you located? Heat can affect shell quality.

Sometimes hens go through periods of odd egg laying and than it corrects itself. Stress can be a big cause. Has there been any changes or disturbances?

 

[lilcheeks]

Could be they are egg eating. Broken eggs will often be eaten up. Are your nestboxes well bedded?

What feed type are you feeding? I prefer something with higher protein than layer to keep my hens from becoming deficient. I keep a separate bowl of oyster shells for the extra calcium needs.

Eggshells do become more thin as the season progresses, as well as older hens can have more brittle shells. 3 years isn't ancient, but she would be considered mature.

Where are you located? Heat can affect shell quality.

Sometimes hens go through periods of odd egg laying and than it corrects itself. Stress can be a big cause. Has there been any changes or disturbances?

Thanks for the response! The boxes are well bedded, but I'll try to keep a close eye on her tomorrow morning to see if I can catch her eating her egg.

I feed them Purina Lauren's pellets, and keep oyster shells in a separate container in their coop.

I'm located in MI, so heat isn't an issue, it's been high of 50 and low of 40 lately, and no disturbances or stress that I can think of.

 

[aart]

Do you feed anything else besides the layer feed?
Layer is usually pretty low protein(~16% - read the label sewn into bottom of bag),
feeding other foods and/or treats can dilute the protein,
as well as the other vitamins/minerals/amino acids in feed that are needed to assimilate the nutrients including the calcium.
They may also be craving some animal protein...mealworms, scrambled eggs, ground meat scraps, etc can help.

A thin shelled egg will be broken easily and gobbled up, everything they can get but the wet spot where the contents soak into the bedding.

 

[lilcheeks]

Do you feed anything else besides the layer feed?
Layer is usually pretty low protein(~16% - read the label sewn into bottom of bag),
feeding other foods and/or treats can dilute the protein,
as well as the other vitamins/minerals/amino acids in feed that are needed to assimilate the nutrients including the calcium. 
They may also be craving some animal protein...mealworms, scrambled eggs, ground meat scraps, etc can help.

A thin shelled egg will be broken easily and gobbled up, everything they can get but the wet spot where the contents soak into the bedding.

I don't typically feed anything else. They spend the day eating bugs outside but I'll try some scraps over the next few days to see if the added protein will help. Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[ThePaulsRanch]

Is she laying possibly a soft shelled egg? You would see a type of "skin " next to the shell-less egg. My Rhode Island had a horrible time getting an egg out, took her 3 days with us soaking her, and since then she has only laid 2 soft shelled eggs. I know she was under a lot of stress though!

 

[lilcheeks]

Is she laying possibly a soft shelled egg? You would see a type of "skin " next to the shell-less egg. My Rhode Island had a horrible time getting an egg out, took her 3 days with us soaking her, and since then she has only laid 2 soft shelled eggs. I know she was under a lot of stress though!

There was a couple times in the last 3 weeks there was a soft egg shell, but normally there's no sign of a shell at all.

 

[ThePaulsRanch]

There was a couple times in the last 3 weeks there was a soft egg shell, but normally there's no sign of a shell at all.

I do agree with aart' s comment above. Protein is crucial to laying hens, so they may be eating the egg and shell for the extra protein they need. I give my girls dried mealworms a couple times a week and a have some left over chick food (which is higher in protein) that I give to them every now and then. Just don't give them too much protein, or it could have the opposite effect. You might try getting calcium tablets from the store and crushing up a half of one to a whole one and mixing it in their water, depending on how much water is in your hens' waterer. Calcium makes a stronger egg shell

 

[ThePaulsRanch]

I use a whole tablet to about 2 gallons of water. I only give them this about once a week though, becuase I don't want to over do it on the calcium, even though they can eat their oyster shell.