Only laying soft shelled eggs-help

[Rocknominoe]

So my EE only is laying soft shelled eggs. I have looked her over, she appears to be in good health. The rest of the flock is laying fine....but in the past 2 weeks since we’ve been back from vacation she’s laid 4 soft shelled eggs, and 2 regular eggs. We were only able to collect one egg(as all these eggs are being eaten by the hens) and it felt powdery, but otherwise in good condition.

I don’t know what to do for her. We’ve tried feeding them back the eggs shells but she won’t eat them.

Any tips besides killing her would be appreciated as she’s my son’s favorite chicken.

 

[danceswithronin]

Give her some oyster shell grit like this to increase her calcium intake: https://www.chewy.com/higgins-miner...MI5MuZ7tyh2wIV01uGCh2EhgqLEAQYASABEgKZ_vD_BwE Mix it in with the feed so they can't really differentiate between the two.

I personally wouldn't give eggshells back to laying hens because I feel like it would increase the likelihood of them developing an egg-eating habit.

 

[aart]

So my EE only is laying soft shelled eggs. I have looked her over, she appears to be in good health. The rest of the flock is laying fine....but in the past 2 weeks since we’ve been back from vacation she’s laid 4 soft shelled eggs, and 2 regular eggs. We were only able to collect one egg(as all these eggs are being eaten by the hens) and it felt powdery, but otherwise in good condition.

I don’t know what to do for her. We’ve tried feeding them back the eggs shells but she won’t eat them.

Any tips besides killing her would be appreciated as she’s my son’s favorite chicken.

How old is she and how long has she been laying?
Was she laying good eggs before the vacation?
Do the eggs have just very thin shells or just membrane?
What and how exactly are you feeding?
How are you presenting the egg shells and are the other birds eating them?

Feeding egg shells and even smashed whole eggs will not turn your birds into egg eaters.
I mix dried and crushed egg shells in with oyster shell in a separate container,
also hard boil 'extra' eggs and chop them up, shell and all, and toss into run.

 

[chickens really]

Sure egg shell has Calcium although not enough to sustain the calcium needed to build strong eggs. Use oyster shell too..

 

[Rocknominoe]

So after I posted this I went out and got crushed oyster shells and mixed it in their feed. To ensure she gets it.

As long as she isn’t cooped 24/7 she will lay an egg every single day. Her eggs aren’t thin shelled, id say they’re normal. Sometimes they’re powdery feeling, and have calcium bumps. The calcium bumps started after our last vacation in April. This is the 2nd time we’ve left her cooped for a long period of time and come back to her not laying again. Then having soft shelled eggs again. And by soft shelled I mean once we saw her literally fart an egg. Other times I find just the membrane cause they’ve eaten the egg. And once I found a full jello, just the membrane on the outside egg.

I know that giving them eggshells doesn’t make them egg eaters. But I know that eggs laying around not in the nesting boxes, soft shelled or not, makes them curious and usually they end up eating it.

We received our second egg in a row from her today. This time the shell had blood on it. I tried to check her but she wouldn’t let me. I’m hoping that it’s just a sign she’s laying again. And I don’t plan to leave for another vacation for a while so hopefully she’ll sort herself out.