Shell-less egg help. Please.

[Vikinglike]

I’ve had an issue with a 15 month old Buff Orpington laying shell-less eggs for the last 2-3 weeks.
I have 13 chickens so I wasn’t sure if I could ID which one, but the mess on her butt was a give away.
She seems to act completely normal otherwise.
What can I do?
Is it contagious?
She’s such a sweetheart....
Please help!
Thank you!

 

[chickenlittle21]

She probably just not eating enough calcium. What do you feed her?

 

[FeltonFunnyFarm]

You can always crush up some tums and see if she will eat that. They are pure calcium. I'd say it is a calcium deficiency also. I had an issue with calcium deficiency a few months ago and I started offering them their eggshell in a separate bowl instead of with their food. Those are just a few ideas for you!

 

[Vikinglike]

She’s on 16% layer feed.
they have oyster shell calcium available in the coop and the run next to their food.
they consume a lot of calcium.
possibly she’s not specifically tho?

 

[Mrs Lackford]

Apologies for hijacking this post - but I also have shell-less egg woes. I have 3 warrens, all of whom layed a 'good' egg this morning. Now 12 hours later I have just found not one, but TWO shell-less eggs in their run. I thought they could only lay once a day - what is happening please!?

I found a shell-less egg from one of them a few days ago but put it down to them being young chickens (who have been laying for a month or so) not having quite figured it all out yet...!

 

[SpaceLamb]

We had a girl laying soft-shelled eggs nearly every night when she first started laying. We gave her a calcium pill (just one found in the pharmacy section) every day until she started laying consistently good eggs. It’s possible your girl just isn’t eating the oyster shell of just needs a bigger dose of calcium to get her system back on track. I’m definitely not an expert but that’s what people on this site suggested we do for our girl and it worked within about 6 weeks.

 

[Mrs Lackford]

hi @SpaceLamb - does she need a calcium pill if she is laying good eggs in the morning though? Thanks

 

[kyleen]

Extra oyster shells on the side. Or keep their shells and crush and feed back to them.

 

[Mrs Lackford]

Extra oyster shells on the side. Or keep their shells and crush and feed back to them.

Hey @kyleen, thanks! I am doing both of these things already so feeling stumped!

 

[SpaceLamb]

hi @SpaceLamb - does she need a calcium pill if she is laying good eggs in the morning though? Thanks

You mentioned they have only been laying for about a month so they’re still fairly new layers and it could just be they haven’t quite figured it out yet. If the soft-shelled eggs become consistent I would do the calcium pills. Our girl used to drop multiple shell-less eggs on the poop board every night and after about 6 weeks taking extra calcium she started laying one normal egg a day. Just make sure if you do use human calcium pills it isn’t the kind with D3 because, as far as I’ve been told, it isn’t water-soluble and they can actually have too much of it.