New Layers, Thin Shells???

[abottrell]

Hello,
I am new to chicken keeping.. I have 6 chickens that are all the same age. I know of 2 that have started laying. My EE Hera, is pretty consistant, and my speckled sussex athena, not so much, but the 3 eggs we have gotten from her have all been small and hard shelled. The other chickens are all squatting, and should be laying, or any day now. For about 3 days, i have noticed what looked like small amounts of yolk in the nesting box, but no shells, and I thought, great... we have an egg eater, and they are thorough. Today, right when i got up, i went to check and there was an egg broken/squished all over the area where the hens sleep. the shell seemed very thin, but it had not been eaten, and was cold. so i am wondering, could i have another hen that is laying but had shell-less eggs and then the thin one? only the 2 have i noticed laying. Also, i feed free choice crushed oyster shell and a mixed flock feed as i have some younger pullets and i dont want to feed the layer feed to them. if i am getting thin shelled eggs from one, what else can i do? Thanks in advance.

 

[mommaford09]

Feed them the shells from the eggs you are getting. Crush them up and mix them with some yogurt. Basically they need some more calcium. But only feed the shells that your chickens lay nothing from another flock or store bought eggs to prevent any cross contamination. But it could just be a new layer thing also and they are trying to get their system working right.

 

[abottrell]

I was thinking maybe it was Aphrodite, I have been watching her for over a week, and she seems to want to lay. She is the smallest in the flock, so maybe the bigger girls arent letting her eat the calcium i have out??? Is this a common new layer thing?

 

[aart]

Thin and soft shelled eggs are very common in the first month or so of laying.

If it's broken, it's fair game(imo) for eating and will not necessarily lead to eating of hard shelled eggs.
Tho it is best to gather any fragile eggs as soon as possible......
.......to lessen the chance that they figure out that they can get into a hard shell too.