Soft Eggs

[ramagesarah]

We have a hen laying soft eggs on a weekly basis. This hen is one of three that we got as chicks, and are our first chicken experience. I've read it can be caused by stress, but we have an enclosed chicken run with no predator access that I know of, and no changes to location, other animals, etc. I also provide ground oyster shells in a dish adjacent to their feeder. We don't have this problem with either of the other two hens. What else could be causing soft eggs?

 

[Mountain Peeps]

Welcome to BYC!

Lack of calcium, water and nutrition can all cause soft shelled eggs. How old is this hen? If she is still a young pullet, her egg laying might not be set in stone yet and her eggs are still a little off-chart.

Are the other chickens pecking or bullying her at all? Stress can definitely effect eggs and bullying definitely causes stress. Could she have worms or other parasites? I would check for all these things.

 

[ramagesarah]

We got her as a chick in February. She's our biggest hen, and the other don't pick on her, in fact she's usually the one causing trouble.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Soft eggs are usually caused by stress, which will make them express the egg before the shell is applied, or from a glitch in the system. They are more common when hens are starting the season or at the end of the season. You didn't mention the age of your hen. Older hens can develop troubles too. An imbalance in vitamins, especially D3 can also cause it, so make sure your feed isn't old and it's of good quality.

 

[Darrahs]

We have a three year old hen who has been laying soft shell eggs off and on for over a year after she was attacked by a raccoon. The attack left her blind in one eye. Her diet is high quality and if I can spend time to focus on getting her to eat yogurt then her eggs firm up but regular layer food plus free access to oyster shells doesn't seem to be enough. The other two hens lay perfect shelled eggs.