Sick hens...Pale comb and thin weak shelled eggs.

[shandiane78]

Well, I got my very first eggs yesterday morning...They'd dropped 5 feet from the roost and cracked open! They had very weak thin shells. Mavis is responsible for one of the eggs because she's been doing the submissive squat, and after laying that egg from the roost, I saw her obsessively exploring the yard (for a nesting spot?) and she actually got outside the fence a couple times.

The thing is, I thought the comb should be really red when they lay? Hers is pretty pale. There has been a respiratory infection in my flock of 7, with 3 birds showing symptoms, so I have them all on Duramycin - 10. Could this be the cause of pale face/comb and thin shells?

Margaret is the hen I suspect of laying the other egg. Her face/comb/wattles are nice and red, but she shows none of the egg laying behaviors. She's also one of the 3 that has been sick, and after a few days of antibiotics, she's still sneezing and sometimes congested.

All the other hens seem to have good color to their faces, even the sickest one and the 5 that aren't quite laying yet. So what's up with Mavis? Any ideas?

Thanks,
Shannon

 

[shandiane78]

I don't know if anyone's read my post, but I had a thought...Is it possible Mavis is responsible for BOTH eggs that came yesterday morning? I'd had this idea before, but dismissed it as impossible. But she's the only hen acting hinky, plus the eggs looked like they were laid one on top of the other. They were dropped on the same spot from the roost (the spot where Mavis sleeps). Same color, same thin brittle shell...When the second one was laid it fell down and smashed into the first one. What do you think?

Thanks,
Shannon

 

[onedozenphyllises]

I don't know anything about what effect the illness and medication may have, but it's not uncommon for first eggs to have thin or soft shells, so maybe these things are unrelated?