Snickerdoodle can't figure out this egg-laying thing!

SqueakChicken

In the Brooder
5 Years
Mar 5, 2014
69
6
48
Vancouver, BC, Canada
Snickerdoodle is a beautiful black/iridescent Ameraucana, 11-month old hen. She started laying beautiful bluish/greenish eggs around 6 months.
For the last few months though, something is not right. Some days it is a thin-shelled egg. Sometimes it's so thin that cracks in an almost powdery way. Some days I just find a broken egg-mess in the nest with a balloon-textured shell. And then days like today, I find the balloon-textured shell and egg-mess under the roost, like she just let it fall out of her.
She otherwise appears healthy. She's in the middle of the pecking order. She isn't a bully, and no one picks on her. I can't figure out any stressful situation and my other girls all lay normally.
So, I'm guessing some sort of disease or issue with her shell gland. Any other ideas?
Also, how do I figure out what's wrong? Do I need to take her to a vet? Let her carry on? Could she be in pain and suffering?
HELP please!
#snickerdoodlethechicken
 
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The reasons the shell of the egg is so thin May be because your hen is lacking calcium. When hens produce eggs it takes a lot of calcium to produce it, and if you don't feed extra calcium in the form of oyster shells or egg shells this may be the reason why.
I suggest just putting a separate pan out or simply mixing up your source of extra calcium into the feed, that way the entire flock gets a supply.
Feed stores normally sell oyster shells and it is quite cheap. At my local feed store it goes for 0.46 cents a pound! I usually buy it in 5lb bags that way I will constantly have some to give on the side

Hopes this helps! Best of luck
 

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