soft egg - gave extra calcium, no improvement

[crunchynut]

I have a 14 month old Wheaten Ameraucana hen that started laying at about 12 months old. I waited and waited and waited for that blue egg, and then she started laying a white rubbery egg! I tried giving her extra calcium, but its been another month and still no improvement.

She also has one gimpy, curled up foot. I'm wondering if there's something genetically wrong with her that caused both the curled up foot and the soft shells? To make it worse, someone (maybe her) has been eating the egg after she lays it - I just find yellow goo in the next box when I go to collect now.

Anything else I can try to improve the shell of her egg?

 

[ChicKat]

My hen Hester went through a soft-shell/shell-less stint - Here's what I did:

The 'cure' for Hester was a combination of pulverized eggshells (think food processer all you chefs) crushed vitamin D3 (WalMart vitamin section) and some raw eggs all mixed together in their feed..... and vinegar in their water--- but then I always put vinegar in their water...or at least 90% of the time.

The vinegar allows the pH to be more acidic and that helps the chicken absorb the nutrients better. I crush their eggshells and by pulverizing them and mixing with the feed...there is no doubt that she ate it..where as free choice calcium/oyster shells/egg shells, she could take-it-or-leave-it. Vitamin D3 is known to help eggshell production.

Good luck with the eggshells. I don't think that the two (foot & shell) are related, unless there is something wrong with her skeleton that would cause the foot problem.

 

[jgilliatt]

I have gotten several very soft eggs. Today I found something that looks like a flat balloon. I'll try the ground egg shells and vitamins. Any other ideas?

 

[ChicKat]

Oh yes, I call those balloon eggs 'membrane eggs'. Vinegar in the water, D3 and calcium....good layer feed too, and maybe a bit of protein like a raw egg to hold the D3 and eggshell powder to the feed. Hope it helps.