Shell less egg

[Ascholten]

Well, I got all laid eggs yesterday so that was good. When I put them in for the night, the one girl curled up in the corner on the bottom of the coop, instead of hopping up on the roost. This had me concerned, but being the sucker I am, I picked her up and put her on her perch, and went in side. so when i checked them this morning, I seen where she left an shell less egg in there. it was mixed in with the pile of poop but sure as heck was shell less. I wonder if this is why she wanted to be on the floor, she felt this coming on.

Find it also strange that she'd decide to let this one loose on the litter floor, and not climb into the nesting box where she usually lays. She otherwise seems fine healthwise. I'll have to keep an eye on her for a few days. she's probably a good year / year and a half old, this is not a new layer. Now im curious.

Aaron

 

[DobieLover]

It happens sometimes. It's very hard for them to pass shell less eggs as the egg just deforms when the contractions come to try to push the egg out. It's exhausting.

I would feed her a calcium tablet once a day for a week and see if that helps her.

Are you offering oyster shell supplementation free choice? Sometimes I do a "calcium infusion" by mixing a handful of oyster shell with a little bit of Greek yogurt to coat it then put little dollops of this all over the place for the hens to eat. I also leave a few dollops on top of the OS in the dispenser to draw attention to it.

 

[Ascholten]

She gets plenty of calcium that I can see it's in her food, she gets the layer pellets and also there is always crushed oyster shell out there too. I got a big bag of it, I put it in a bowl next to their feed dish so they can eat it as they want it. Her normal egg she layed in the morning was just fine, the shell was nice and thick / hard so, must have been one of those things. Hopefully a one time thing only !~

Aaron

 

[humblehillsfarm]

I see you're in Jacksonville? The hotter the temps, the less feed chickens tend to eat, so they are getting less calcium. Soft shelled eggs are more likely in the summer and more likely from older birds as well. I get them fairly frequently in the summer from my older gals. You can try saving egg shells to feed back to them. I've noticed if given the options my girls will happily gorge on egg shells before choosing the oyster shells, although oyster shells are a better quality source of calcium.

 

[Ascholten]

Ill have to try that. get some shells, throw em in the blender or something to grind them up real well so there is no way to see what they were and feed them back and see if that helps. They are also finding stuff in the yard, the dug the heck out of one place and are constantly there picking and feeding, have NO clue what they found but yah, the feeding, they get pickier when it's hot out it seems.

Aaron