Soft egg

[happyhomemom]

We have 7 chickens around 25 weeks old. We get 7 eggs almost every day. Once in awhile we get a soft shell egg or find one under the roost broken. Today my dh moved a Rhode Island Red from the lower roost to the upper roost and she got mad. He watched her drop the thin shelled egg from the roost. What could be going on? The egg shell is almost see through. She lays regular good eggs most days.

 

[Rhoise]

We have 7 chickens too!
New pullets take a while to work out the kinks, make sure they are getting layer feed, and give them oyster shell in a separate dish to make sure they are getting plenty of calcium. Mine layed several sporadic soft eggs in the beginning, haven't had a single one in 4 weeks now, pretty sure it was just getting the laying kinks worked out, my pullets are 27 and 28 weeks old today.
Here is yesterdays haul starting with the largest egg on the leftgoing clockwise
SL,SL,SL,PBR,RIR,RIR,RIR
or for someone who spends way too much time with her chickens,
Frankie,Francine,Betty,Gertie,Kingston,Rhody, & Ruby LOL!

 

[ChickensRDinos]

Soft shell eggs are not uncommon in new layers. I would not worry about it unless it continues on for a long time.

Make sure they are getting a layer feed or a grow/flock raiser with calcium on the side. Either way is fine. Also make sure they are not eating so many snacks that it is taking away from protein and calcium intake.

 

[Murs]

I'm glad you asked. I have noticed three really soft eggs so far. The one I collected this morning looked like a normal egg, it was whole but was really soft. I find these eggs under the roost. Do they lay eggs in their sleep?

I just recently started having this problem so I am going to get some oyster shell from the feed store to see if that helps. I'm pretty sure it's from my younger chicken since the other two sleep in the nest boxes. I used to get hard eggs from all of them, never had the soft ones before. I'm wondering if trauma can cause this too? Unfortunately I lost a chicken to a raccoon (I'm pretty sure it was a raccoon) and that chicken was the same age and good friends with the one laying soft eggs.

Another question - are the soft eggs ok to eat? Like I said it's completely in tact and the membrane is not broken but if it's not a hard shell is it protected from bacteria. Forgive me if this is a stupid question - I'm learning as I go.

Thanks

 

[ChickensRDinos]

I'm not sure but the bloom on the outside of the shell is what keeps bacteria out and I am not sure that they would have that on them. I give the ones I find from time to time to my dogs. They LOVE them and dogs are not susceptible to the same bacteria as people. I don't think I would personally eat it.

 

[sumi]

Soft shell eggs are fine to eat, but I don't think they'll stay fresh as long as proper hard shell eggs. They dry out too quickly.