Soft Rubbery eggs

[stevin]

A couple of my leghorns have been laying soft rubbery eggs. i've been finding them on the poop board first thing in the morning. but by the time i get there all i find is the rubbery shell which just looks like a popped balloon. this has been happening 1 -2 times a week, most of the time i find just one but a couple of times i've found two empty shells.
there is free choice oyster shelsl and lime stone at all times. i'm yet to find a soft brown or green or blue egg, it's just been the white ones. the only thing that i can think of is that the leghorns backs had gotten pretty bare from the roosters, since rehoming all but 1 rooster their back feathers have started to grow back. could this be the reason why i have gone from 4-5 white eggs a day from 5 hens to an average of 2 white eggs a day plus the weekly / bi-weekly rubbery eggs?
is it that their bodies are concentrating on growing feathers and egg laying has been put on the back burner?
they all seem as normal as ever. they eat, drink as they always have.....

 

[duckinnut]

Your assumption could be correct as they could be trying to regrow feathers as it takes a lot out of them. I had a Barred Rock trying to lay during molt and she would give one of those rubbery ones you speak of. But as this might be the problem there are a host of other things that could be the culprit too. People often assume its lack of calcium and in some cases it is but not most. If you feed layer and offer oyster shell you more than got it covered. So you have to narrow down potential problems,general sickness,molt,stress,lack of light and vitamin D which helps them process calcium,worms or parasites,lice,changes in the flock dynamics and not to mention genetics and many more things. You just got to rule them one by one as a possible reason. In general most chickens slow down or plain stop in winter pending on age and breed to where pullets will generally lay thru winter. Good luck and hope this helps from a fellow Mass chickeneer.