Older hen laying shell-less eggs? Any ideas? UPDATE #9

[KellyHM]

I got an EE hen about a month ago to add to my flock. She's suppose to be about 1.5 years old. After 4-5 days of settling in she laid a normal egg, then the next day she laid one that was thin-shelled which broke in my hand when I picked it up. Ever since then she's been laying them without shells. A week and a half ago she seemed to have one break inside her, so I brought her in and doctored her for a couple days, then booted her back out. Now back to shell-less. Her attitude/appetite/etc. has been great this whole time. Her poo and everything else is normal. It's just the eggs. Any ideas??? I don't want to have to make soup out of her, but if she doesn't shape up soon...

ETA: She eats layer crumbles, free ranges, gets some treats, and has oyster shell available at all times.

 

[lovemychix]

I will once in awhile have one like that...don't know why? Really soft shell that just breaks.

 

[KellyHM]

Do yours go back to normal quickly though? She did that then started laying them shell-less...going on 3 weeks now.

 

[maria22000]

My older hen does that too She hasn't gone back to normal. She is 4-5 though so maybe that is normal then, I don't know.

 

[lovemychix]

Got another weak shell today but all others are good.

 

[KellyHM]

Grrr....now I'm not even getting shell-less. I think she's heading towards the crock pot.

 

[suburbanhomesteader]

I have had this problem with 5 of my Easter-eggers, but never had that problem with my production reds or barred rocks.

Not sure if it matters, but all the EEs were from McMurray; they were from 2 separate, year-apart batches of 10 each. So, of 20 EEs, 5 laid shell-less eggs.

I'm going to try Ideal Poultry next time and see if this is an EE thing or a genetics thing.

Oh....one more thing. Don't let anyone tell you this is a lack of calcium issue. I have isolated 4 of these birds, and they go through oyster shell at the same rate my other girls do.

 

[maria22000]

Yeah, it's not a calcium issue here either.

 

[KellyHM]

Update - today this hen was egg bound! Like I really needed something else to deal with. I finally got the egg out of her and it was very rough, which I guess is why she was having problems with it. At least it had a shell on it. Now maybe things will get back to normal!!!

Oh, and she's fine...no prolapses afterwards or anything like that...right back to pecking around 5 minutes after I washed her up and lubed her.