Shelless Eggs

[joscon]

I have a red star about 27 weeks old. she has layed about 4 eggs now. the first was a very soft shell, so I gave them lots of oyster shell and have been giving them back there egg shells. 3 of those 4 have been like now shell at all. its like a thin membrane and nothing more. What is wrong? Is she "broken" ?

 

[Erica]

Hi joscon,

sometimes when a bird comes into lay there can be glitches. Usually they clear up. However persistent soft shelled eggs are dangerous (they can break inside, leading to peritonitis) and painful for the bird to lay (nothing to push against).

It may be that she hasn't learned to eat shell grit yet, in which case you might try adding it to a mash just to see if that helps. But if this goes on longer than a week or so, there are a few other things that cause soft eggshells, so I'll list the ones I know in case any of them gives you an idea.

- not enough vitamin D (sunlight, cod liver oil) to enable calcium absorption
- intestinal issue leading to malabsorption (enteritis, worms, algae in the water)
- too much calcium fed to a young bird that isn't laying yet (harms later calcium uptake), e.g. being on layer food while still growing
- wrong mineral balance, e.g. feeding too much phosphorus or magnesium compared to calcium (e.g. feeding bone meal, milk, or dolomite)
- egg drop syndrome (triggered by a virus)
- damage to shell gland from certain respiratory diseases etc

The best tactic if it doesn't clear up with any of the easy treatments (vitamin D, mineral rebalance, clean water, maybe some probiotics) is to force a moult (reduce daylight, feed low protein e.g. wheat for a week) and see if her system resets itself.

best wishes, hope this helps you pinpoint what's wrong,
Erica

Edited to add 'longer than a week or so', as this may just be an onset-of-lay glitch...

 

[Nicole01]

We just culled a wyandotte due to this issue. We found 15-20 full sized yolks inside her along with the hundreds of tiny ones. She was over a year and never laid an egg. She did not produce an egg shell ever. She would of eventually died as being an internal layer.

 

[joscon]

Thank you for the fast replies and advise. I will try them. I sure hope it passes and she is ok.

 

[Doolan]

I have same problem with one of my three girls.....here in Australia Vitamen D should not be my issue due to long days of sunshine..I have wormed them regularly..they have been laying for about three months but one has laid about one softie each couple of weeks the other days they are firm but getting more often just now....i feed the whey from the yogurt i make so heaps of pro biotics there ummm..... Calcium enriched grain and layer pellet combo..free range to an extent...very happy..can someone tell me how long I would let this happen? Masses of green leafy veg and fruit......thanks for any advice xx

 

[casportpony]

I have same problem with one of my three girls.....here in Australia Vitamen D should not be my issue due to long days of sunshine..I have wormed them regularly..they have been laying for about three months but one has laid about one softie each couple of weeks the other days they are firm but getting more often just now....i feed the whey from the yogurt i make so heaps of pro biotics there ummm..... Calcium enriched grain and layer pellet combo..free range to an extent...very happy..can someone tell me how long I would let this happen? Masses of green leafy veg and fruit......thanks for any advice xx

When I have hens with egg issues, I give 500mg of calcium by mouth every other day until the problems resolve.

Have you seen this link?
http://www.avianweb.com/eggproblems.html

 

[Mtn Laurel]

When my two black sex links began laying, they did the no-shell thing several times. Then I would get a really soft, leathery shell, then would find a no-shell egg under the roost. I was getting more of the no-shell eggs than normal eggs for a while. If your girl is anything like my two girls were, her body is just getting used to the whole egg laying business. Seems it takes some of them a bit of time to get everything synchronized.

If I were you, I'd give her some time before making any decisions about culling or visiting the stew pot. BTW, my girls have now been laying for a few months and they lay a huge brown egg 5-6 days a week.