No shells on two-year old hens' eggs...

[chickensrgr8]

For the past several months, a couple of the girls: The Plymouth Rock and now I think another (Rhode Island Red) have been laying eggs but with NO shells! They are fed Layena crumble & I add oyster shell. They have grit (in a seperate container), and organic veggies & fruit and yogurt --but as treats only. Fresh water always. I had the Vet come out several months ago when the Plymouth was acting a bit 'weird' and I noticed eggs were coming out watery then. The Vet checked for parasites in a stool sample and checked them for mites but found nothing wrong. I administered an antibiotic for just a few days (per Vet's advice) to the Plymouth and she perked right back up. But since then (and a little bit before) I am finding eggs with no shells--messy! Now, it seems that another hen is doing the same thing--or maybe they were all doing it all along for awhile---I just don't know now. We have four hens (all two-years old) but they either seem to be not laying or when they do lay, the eggs have no shells or are watery/broken with no shell. Every now and then, we find one 'normal' egg. I'm wondering if this is natural with "age" or if anyone out there has had something similar happen? I can't seem to find any answers except to feed them oyster shell. Thanks for any input!

 

[CMV]

It is not a normal age related change. The shells do get a little thinner and paler in color as hens age, but they don't disappear altogether. Check out this link and see if it has any useful info for you. Good luck.

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/publi...ndbook/16/thinshelled-eggs-and-shellless-eggs

 

[mamagardener]

I have never heard of that happening regularly, I have heard of it happening sometimes. Are you sure one of your chickens isn't eating the eggs?

 

[BetterHensandGardens]

Could they have been exposed to infectious bronchitis? Watery eggs, thin shells, slow down in production, and wrinkled eggs are all signs of infectious bronchitis.

 

[fargosmom]

The link above has some good ideas to look at. In my case I've been getting thin-shelled eggs lately from my BR's, and it's because they're absolute pigs about "treats" like veggies. I had to really cut back how much I was giving them so they would go back to eating their layer pellets. Maybe try cutting out the treats entirely for a day or two and see if it makes any change - your girls might just have started to save their appetites for dessert.

 

[chickensrgr8]

Thank you ALL for your notes. The girls haven't been getting treats for days yet the eggshells are still missing. Every now and then a very thin rubber-like crinkled eggshell will appear in the "drop" pans with the broken yolk/watery mess next to it. I also find a yolk without any shell inside their nest boxes, so I know they aren't eating the insides of the eggs--but are probably eating the thin shell layer--- if there is one. They have a really nice clean coop that allows them protected outside access PLUS a free-range area outside of that (when I let them out) but the free-range area is located near/slightly under a cedar tree. I'm just wondering if the cedar seeds that may drop and get eaten are the cause??? They've been in this area their whole lives, so I'm finding that a hard one to believe since this just started happening months ago. Other than this mystery, they are alert, happy, eating regularly from their food pan, etc... I will just research the bronchitis a bit more though they don't seem to have any other symptoms related to bronchitis. Again, thank you for your responses!

 

[HarryBun12]

One of my hens is a RIR bantam. She laid nearly 4-5 eggs a week last summer and fall and nearly all of them were without shells. Late in fall she went through a molt, didn't lay all winter and now is an egg-laying dynamo- eggs WITH shells. Of course she's gone broody twice already this spring but she's otherwise doing great. My other hens were laying just fine so I knew it wasn't a diet issue. I assumed her innards were broken but I'm happy she's so productive now. Hopefully your problem is temporary, too.

 

[BetterHensandGardens]

My 2 year old birds were exhibiting egg laying behaviour very similar to yours, and I have concluded that they caught Infectious Bronchitis from new birds that I brought in. You can read what I learned about it here: http://www.betterhensandgardens.com/2010/05/11/painful-chicken-lesson/
and also see an example of the wrinkled eggs they sometimes produce. I hope you do not have the same problem, but just in case - the wrinkled eggs seem to be indicative of IB. We have concluded that we will need to start over if we want eggs.

 

[Annabella]

HarryBun I am encouraged by your experience. I have a girl that continues to lay soft shells. Feeding up with calcium rich hasnt brought improvement. I keep hoping she'll get over it.