Soft eggs and feed question

[rkapfen]

Hi everyone,

So lately one of my EE has been having some calcium deposit on her eggs and then yesterday laid a very soft shell egg. I talked with the vet shout it and she recommended an hour at night of full spectrum light. Does anyone use supplemental light.. I’m confused what I should be buying to provide this for her. A regular lightbulb or something special? I also had been on here before and asked whether it was necessary to take them off their starter feed to a layer feed since I’m feeding them oyster shell/egg shell and the consencous was that it was not necessary especially since I’m adding 2 more baby chicks with them in about 6 weeks and I won’t be able to make sure they eat separate food. She seemed pretty upset with me for having them still on a starter. Is she right or should I keep them on starter until my 2 babies can eat layer and then switch?

 

[A_Fowl_Guy]

Switch to an all flock with oyster shell on the side. All flock is for flicks of mixed ages and genders so it is fine for all. I never use supplemental light.

 

[Criticalicious]

See if your feed brand offers a grower/broiler or an all-flock version. I don't recommend supplement light either. It's better to let them take a break. How long has she been laying? If she's fairly new at it, then her system may need a few weeks to get used to it. Soft eggs are normal in the first couple weeks for a new layer.

 

[rkapfen]

See if your feed brand offers a grower/broiler or an all-flock version. I don't recommend supplement light either. It's better to let them take a break. How long has she been laying? If she's fairly new at it, then her system may need a few weeks to get used to it. Soft eggs are normal in the first couple weeks for a new layer.

I’ll check into an all flock feed. The supplemental light wouldn’t be to force her to lay it would just be some extra vitamin D to help her take in her calcium since we’ve been having a longer than normal winter. She is a fairly new layer. She’s only 1 year old, I’m just worried she will become egg bound since we’ve been having issues with all her eggs lately

 

[Mrs. K]

Really, one soft shell egg is more than likely a blimp. They occasionally happen. Sometimes there will be a couple, and then they are laying just fine, even if you do nothing. People think it is the lights or the calcium you added, but if you think about it, it is going to take several weeks for a nutritional imbalance to correct itself.

If you have oyster on the side, or feed back shells, don't worry about it. Eggs are not always perfect, just like some days my hair won't work!

I would not change any thing unless you have 6-10 soft shell eggs in a few weeks time period. As for starter, vs layers feed vs all flock, should probably not feed layer to chicks, but truthfully, an occasional crumb is not going to kill them.

I either feed my multigenerational flock chick feed or flock feed, depending on where I get it. Add oyster on the side. Things are fine.

Mrs K

 

[Criticalicious]

One of mine had a soft egg with a double egg in the first 4 weeks of starting to lay. It freaked me out. But after that, everything has been normal.

 

[aart]

A regular lightbulb or something special?

It's special and not necessary here IMO.

I’m feeding them oyster shell/egg shell

How exactly are you feeding it? Oyster shell is a better calcium source as it remains in the gizzard longer.

She seemed pretty upset with me for having them still on a starter.

Is she an avian vet? How well does she know chickens?

She is a fairly new layer.

How long has she been laying?

Agrees with @Mrs. K an occasional soft shell is nothing to panic about.

I feed a 20% protein flock raiser with OS on the side and have few problems with soft shells other than new layers.

 

[Potrack]

Around here they provide a regular incandescent light bulb that lights up similar to lighting a house room at night. Long commercial chicken houses have strings of them down the center. They give the chickens a longer ‘day’ to increase the laying. With BYC it’s usually not necessary and soft shelled eggs seem to be a self correcting problem. I may see 3-4 soft shelled eggs a year from 20 chickens. They make an oyster shell supplement that may help a bit. It never made much difference for our chickens.