What causes a soft shell. This is her first egg, she is a RIR and is 21wks old. I found the soft shell egg under the roost this am when I let them out of the hen house. My girls have been eating layer pellets for the past three wks and they get fresh greens daily with a treat of grapes with oyster shell in the run. My other RIR's eggs are hard shell, she has been laying for a week now. They are same age and free range. Does it take some pullets longer to get the hang of knowing when to lay?
When my orloff started to lay she had a couple soft shell eggs then poof normal hard egg shells. Give it some time.
I think it is just the stress of starting to lay for some birds, give her time and it should correct itself.
They free range on oyster shell in their run. I think it's taking her longer to get things working normal. She eats layer pellets also.
I almost wonder if it something else because the egg was found under the roost. My 2 RIR's have been laying brown eggs for about 2 1/2 months & once in a while I will find a soft-shelled egg under their roost in the morning. A few times I have even found 2 soft-shelled eggs under their roosting spot. Sometimes they will still lay an egg later in the day although it is white, thin-shelled & oddly shaped. I was wondering if they sometimes "drop" eggs at night for some reason?? Any ideas??? They also eat all the oyster shell they want.
I have seen and heard that when a hen is going to lay a soft shelled egg she doesn't lay it in her nest box because she is so uncomfortable. I have found most of my soft shells out in the yard. Never in a nest box.
I found a soft shelled egg this a.m. too. It was already broken though. It may have been layed from a roosting hen(?) I am going to go with the 'new layer' theory, at least for now.
I had an experience a while ago where my RIR laid 3 soft shells in one day! She had been laying hard shells for a while, and then suddenly 3 softies. I think it may have been something in her diet, but I couldn't say for sure. She laid all three in random places--one standing up on a hillside--so I think they kind of came without her realizing they were coming.
