Soft Eggshells

[HammOndEggs]

I am a fairly new comer to chicken keeping for egg laying, having only started this yime last year. We have 8 cross Sussrx Whites / Rhode Island Reds which are very friendly and easy to keep. In the last month, one of the hens ( i have no idea which one) has started laying very fragile eggs which if not found in time, are broken by other layers.
The eggs are normal in shape and have hard shells at the top and bottom but a very thin and whitish / pale brown band around the middle which has no real substance to it.

I put oyster shell grit in the feed virtuially every day and all the other hens are laying perfectly normal eggs.

Any ideas on the cause and remendy?

HammOndEggs

 

[graciesmum]

I sometimes get these and they seem to sort it themselves, also it could be that the certain hen is near the end of her egg cycle and coming up for a molt maybe?

 

[HammOndEggs]

Thanks for that. Those reasons hadn't occurred to me. I'll just have to watch carefully to see how things progress. It has been going on for about a month now so from what you say, hopefully we will be back to normal soon.

 

[Reurra]

Ive been having the same issue with Dragon, my lead hen. She is 13 months old and for the first time has started to lay weird eggs that are soft or brittle. She seems normal in every physical way and has not shown any sign of illness.

Do they really act weird at the molt? My girls have never molted, although I think my roo is starting to. Lots of feathers around the coop.

 

[Fancychooklady]

A friend of mine rang me because she thought her hen was dying. Turned out she was molting
They certainly look very ordinary at molt time, and I feel that they get picked on by the others. Could be a bit of an inferior complex. I go to the restaurant in town and ask them for their oyster shells, they are very happy to get rid of them. I put them into the run and hit them with the sledge hammer.

 

[graciesmum]

When my girls molted, a few of them stopped laying, and a few just laid weird eggs and soft shell eggs, lasted about 6/8 weeks they are all back on track, except one who decided she would wait and molten on her own lol, they act normal and eat normal, just seem to look a bit scruffy and you will see alot of feathers about, if it is that your girl is molting feeding extra protein is good to help with regrowth of feathers

 

[graciesmum]

my girl who is molting now, she looks normal and acts normal, but if you look closely you can see her neck feathers are scruffy and she has a fair few missing