No Shell

[Camshaft]

This is the second day in a row that one of my hens have layed an egg with no shell. Could there be something wrong with her? She's a Golden Comet.. 25 weeks old and all are healthy freerange chickens and I do have crushed egg shell available for them.

 

[dsqard]

Since she is so young and I would guess only started laying fairly recently, she is probably just getting her egg producing "works" worked out. If you can get oyster shell to put out, I would suggest it only because she might need more calcium (I don't know how much egg shells you put out and how many pullets are eating it). I would just keep an eye on her to see if she continues to lay shell less eggs.

 

[bills]

I got the odd soft shell egg even from older birds. Couple days they are back to regular eggs again. Hard to say exactly why this happens, but it is usually attributed to lacking calcium.

Perhaps it's not eating any of the oyster shell you have available.. Perhaps try some crushed dried egg shells, as they will boot the calcium intake, or perhaps a bit of yogurt??

 

[Camshaft]

Thanks much for your info. Out of the 8 I have, 6 are laying great..so it's down to one of the two that are left. Every day I give all of them 1/4 of a cabage which they all love and all the crushed eggshell they want. I'm 5 minutes from the ocean so I'll be heading there to get some oyster shells to see if that will make a diff. I hope she stops this cause it sure seems a waste.

 

[Yay Chicks!]

What I noticed with mine is that some prefer the oyster shell and some prefer the egg shell. Picky birds. Besides free ranging, I assume they are getting layer feed? I had one that had some difficulty laying whole eggs consistently, but then she got it together and is the best layer out of the four.

 

[Camshaft]

Oh, I know how picky some of them can be, and Yes, they are on layer feed. Being that it's the first time I have chickens I guess I'm being too picky. I live right by a trout stream surrounded by woods with fox, wesal, coyote, mink..etc and have been Very lucky not to have lost one or all I guess. Time to go check the coop for more eggs!

 

[catwalk]

I, too, am getting shelless eggs from a particular pullet. There is oyster shell for the taking, but I don't know IF she is taking...

I had this issue before with an unrelated pullet, and I was told by the breeder that offering club soda instead of water helped. I sold that pullet before I received the advice, but I may check it out with this one.

 

[imusa76]

I have one that sometimes lays a soft or no shell Egg, I have Oyster Sell Free choice, but I also Started adding some in the feed, and so far so good.

 

[TomG]

My four pullets all layed a soft egg once or twice a week or so when they were your chickens age. They have all grown out of it. Mine all ate layer feed and had oyster shell available, plus yogurt and cottage cheese. I don't think it's a lack of calcium. I think it's a stage some go through.

 

[Camshaft]

Quote:
Yup, I agree... I don't think it's got anything to do with the amount of calcium that's being offered. She layed a perfect, hard shell egg this mourning so I've learn't something new again. Thanks for all your help !