Shell-less eggs, no other symptoms.

[CSWolffe]

My two year old Australorp has recently just begun laying again after a winter hiatus. She laid a good half dozen eggs, regularly, every other day. Then for some reason she has started laying soft shelled or no-shelled eggs. All of em. bout the last six to eight of them.
She has no other symptoms. She's alert, she's eating well, bright eyes, is at the top of the pecking order, has access to plenty of water, oyster shell, 20% lay pellets, and a Flock Block.
My three other hens are all laying well, with no shell problems.
Any ideas what this could be?
And how can I remedy it?
Thank you all in advance.

 

[dawg53]

Try finely crushed eggshells mixed in her feed and hopefully her shells will harden.

 

[CSWolffe]

She has plenty of calcium, both in the feed and as oyster shell.
A few days after I posted above, she stopped laying entirely. Not sure if she's spent or what. She's about two years old, with about 18 months of decent laying. Everything I've read suggests I should still have gotten another year or so of average laying out of her.
I guess there's nothing left to do but wait and see...

 

[Joe C]

Same problem with my RI Red who is 2 years old. Has free run of the yard during the day. Consistent layer of 1 a day perfect eggs and suddenly paper thin shells. Me being new and seeing that she liked the corn best had loaded her diet
with corn treats about 2 weeks previously. Oyster shells and crumble all available but she went most for the corn.

Now for 2 weeks have been working at getting back strong shells. Have withdrawn treats and
along with the crumble have given her grated cheese, deep green vegis, and crushed eggshells.
Can I add calcium or nutrients to the water? Is cheese ok to give her?

 

[Haunted55]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/738201/goose-what-is-this-how-did-it-happen-what-do-i-do-about-it

You can read through this and see what I did for my goose and I have used the same dosing with the Calcium and D pill for a few of my chickens as well. 5 doses seems to get them back on track, but like you, I have no clue why this is happening all of a sudden. I've had problems with my goose and 6 chickens to date. Oyster shell, 2 different brands of layer pellets, and the hens are eating the eggs as fast as they lay them. I don't get it either.

 

[liz9910]

Hi, this happened to me too, I was instructed to worm my chickens. After I wormed them, it stopped! It was awesome.

 

[Haunted55]

Hi, this happened to me too, I was instructed to worm my chickens. After I wormed them, it stopped! It was awesome.

Worth a try I guess although mine were done in Oct. and the follow up dose in Nov.. House cleaned and sanitized and it's been too darned cold for anything to be 'growing' here. These birds haven't touched bare ground for months now because of the snow, ice and freezing temps..

 

[Joe C]

Hi Golden Feather!
How did you give the calcium and vitamin D supplement and
how much? I'll try anything.

 

[Haunted55]

Hi Golden Feather!
How did you give the calcium and vitamin D supplement and
how much? I'll try anything.

I took the pill and crushed it in about a 1/2-3/4 of a cup of water. Just enough that I knew they would drink it in a short amount of time.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

There are many serous chicken diseases that results in adult hens suddenly beginning to lay soft (actually no shelled) eggs or deform shelled eggs. There are too many diseases to list here but if you do enough reading you may gain a clue.