Shellless eggs

[lazy gardener]

Question re: new layers: One of my girls, a BSL has so far (that I know of) laid 2 eggs without shell, and one with. The shell on the one normal egg was nothing to write home about in terms of being hard shelled. As soon as they started laying, I offered oyster shell, and today gave them crushed egg shell. From my reading on this site, I'm guessing that shellless eggs sometimes happen when a pullet is just getting started. This girl is also not using the nest box. At what point should I be concerned. I'm offering water with and without ACV, grower 15% mixed with multiflock 26% usually FF, as well as left over goodies occasionally. Their run is 1600sf. so they get what ever insects they find there, plus what ever I toss them from the garden. Any thoughts, recommendations? How long to wait to sort things out re: normal before I decide to cull?? My big concern is that these "membrane" eggs will encourage egg eating, which will spread to include normal eggs. (The egg from this morning was eaten, leaving just the "turtle shell like membrane".)

 

[WendyJeepchick]

Good question. Subscribed.

 

[A Chicken Owner]

New laying pullets usually lay shellless, small or large eggs. It's totally normal and its not related to a lack of calcium in her diet. No matter how much shell grit she eats, she still might lay an egg like this. There is no need to cull her at the moment.

 

[lazy gardener]

New laying pullets usually lay shellless, small or large eggs. It's totally normal and its not related to a lack of calcium in her diet. No matter how much shell grit she eats, she still might lay an egg like this. There is no need to cull her at the moment.

So, how long could this continue before it is considered chronic and thus an indication that the bird should be culled. I know no one has a crystal ball, but if any readers can offer reports of how their membrane egg layers progressed, that would be a good reinforcement for us newbies. Thanks, chicken owner!

 

[A Chicken Owner]

If this doesn't stop in 1-1 1/2 months, she may have a disorder.

 

[A Chicken Owner]

But most likely she is a normal hen and will stop laying these eggs.

 

[sumi]

I agree with the above posts. She should progress to laying normal eggs within a few weeks and in the meantime she may lay a few abnormal eggs while she's getting her reproductive system in gear. It is important that a hen gets enough calcium when she starts laying though. Either switch them to layer feed or make sure you always have a separate feeder with crushed oystershell or eggshell available for them.

 

[lazy gardener]

Update re: BSL who is laying shell-less eggs. The last 2 days, she has laid 2 eggs each day, one with a nice shell, and the second one later in the day without a shell. I watched her lay the second egg today. She was in obvious distress, standing low to the ground, hunched up, neck drawn in. When I picked her up to examine her, she had clear viscous fluid leaking out of her vent. Shortly there after a very large "jelly egg" plopped onto the ground. She's getting plenty of calcium. I assume that this will either straighten out on it's own... or it won't!

 

[A Chicken Owner]

As I said there isn't much you can do other than making sure she has enough grit. This should straighten out within the next month.

 

[lazy gardener]

As I said there isn't much you can do other than making sure she has enough grit. This should straighten out within the next month.

thankyou.