New Eggs

[HennyPennyChicky]

Hi! Finally joined as a member after reading many threads on BYC for months. Our hens are nearly all laying eggs—our first layer started at 13.5 weeks. The next at 14.5 weeks, and the next two around 20 weeks. We have one more to start but she’s at the bottom of the pecking order so we are just trying to make her feel comfortable and give her time. One hen (our olive egger) is only laying soft shells lately. I think she’s been laying for almost 3 weeks now but in the past week, we had one hard shell and 6 soft shells from her. Already have the layer feed, the oyster shells available, they free-range… not sure if I can help her or just let her body work out the kinks.

 

[BoundlessLove]

Welcome to Backyard Chickens!
Sounds like you’re on top of everything.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Welcome to Backyard Chickens. This is a great place to explore and hang out. You can add a few mealworms in the oyster make it more appealing.

 

[GodLovesU]

You can find more information on soft-shell eggs here.

 

[chrissynemetz]

Welcome to BYC! It's nice to meet you!

 

[Bsmac]

Hello! Welcome to BYC! Have fun here!

 

[muddy75]

 

[DobieLover]

Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.

not sure if I can help her

You can. Get a bottle of generic calcium citrate with vitamin D. Give her one tablet in the morning and another in the evening for a total of 630 mg of calcium a day. Do this for one week. It is extremely stressful on the body to try to lay an egg with no shell. The extra calcium will help with the shell formation as well as the contractions. Hopefully that will get her over the worst of it and her reproductive system will develop properly in order to prevent this from occurring in the future.
Once she's all smoothed out, I would encourage you to stop feeding layer feed to these young pullets. Sooner or later you're going to have birds in your flock that should not be eating that excess calcium. And that includes hens that have molted their feathers and aren't going to start laying again for a few months. Not to mention layer feed never has adequate protein. It only has the minimum amount of protein to keep the bird alive and cranking out eggs. For optimal body condition and longevity you want to increase their protein intake to somewhere between 18 and 20%.

 

[janiedoe]

Welcome to BYC, and good luck with your pullet!

 

[Knobby]

Thank you on your decision to join!