Soft shell egg

[claireree]

Been and fed the chickens this morning and found another soft shell broken egg where they roost at night, I am not sure which one has laid it and i got another one last week. I live in spain and Im struggling to get oyster shell over here is there anything else I can use instead or is this due to the fact that all of my hens are only young and not getting the eggs 100% right yet.

 

[Beth G.]

Try some yogurt. It's worked for me on occasion. Most times soft shells (if not an old bird or sick bird) is due to lack of protein.

 

[claireree]

plain yoghurt or flavoured

 

[Pet Duck Boy]

Plain, flavored yogurt probably has too much sugar in it. You can also save egg shells from the eggs you do eat. Just bake them for a few minutes until dry, then crush them up into powder and mix it with their food. Or you can crush them into bite sized pieces and offer it free-choice in a different container.

 

[burquechick]

My chickens don't like oyster shell. Instead, I feed them powdered milk. I sprinkle it on treats or food every other day. It's a bit expensive, but you can keep it on your shelf forever (unlike yogurt) and you don't need much. When I'm feeling spendy, I prefer to get them cottage cheese, as they have a hard time eating yogurt too.

 

[Beth G.]

Quote:
I use plain or greek yogurt and there is not too much sugar in it! Also you can mix frest fruit like berries in it. I personally have never had a problem with feeding it. I put it in an old pie tin and by the time I go back out it's all gone. I think the moisture in there also helps this time of year when it is really hot out.

 

[Mrs. K]

Sometimes you just get a soft shell egg. They are gross, but they are just kind of a fluke. I have oyster shell out, and they hardly ever eat it. But sometimes they almost get crazy about some egg shells, like they are desperate for it.

I am going to try adding a little powder milk. I have a big box, and seldom use it and it is getting old.

Mrs.K

 

[MicheleE]

I'm having a similar problem. My new hens are 5 months old. One of them is laying and produces good eggs. Then every couple of days I find soft shelled eggs under their roost, sometimes broken open. The shell is completely soft/pliable as if it didn't harden. What I thought was weird that it always is under the roosting bar in the poop as if the hens know it is waste. I'm not sure what is going on either. I didn't have this problem with my hens from last spring started laying.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

This question comes up often and there are people that will always say that it's due to a lack of calcium. In my opinion it's because the hen is off of her normal egg laying cycle and has laid the egg early for some reason, before the shell has been formed. Many times I find soft shelled eggs walking through our layer barn at night or very early in the morning before most of the flock has started to lay. I've heard others say that they find them under the roosts as if a hen has laid the egg early. It could be due to disturbances at night that are upsetting the flock. There are times that I will walk through the barn at night and see nothing and then circle my way back around (it's a large barn), and find that one of the hens has laid a soft shelled egg on the floor, as if I startled her. Sometimes a hen just gets out of sync and it takes a few days for her to return to laying normal eggs.

A good layer ration should have all of the calcium they need. Adding extra to the ration and forcing them to eat it can be detrimental. If you feel you have to give them more, give it to them free choice. If you can't find oyster shell, pulverized limestone will do, the same limestone they use for gravel driveways is what is added to chicken feed to supply calcium. If you have a gravel driveway, just let them run around out there.

 

[WhiteLeggern]

I grew up on a production egg farm back in the 60's and 70's (not at all like the modern, horrible chicken houses, our girls were happy judging from the way they sang). We had about 10,000 White Leghorn's at any given time. We would get maybe a couple of dozen soft shells a day even though the laying mash had oyster shells in it. I think it is just a thing that happens sometimes. BTW if you get to it before it has a chance to get dirty, nothing wrong with using it, just have to do it quick cause they dry out fast. I used to scramble them and feed them to my "pet" roosters for a treat. We were supposed to kill the occasional rooster that got included in the flock but, my Dad liked to hear them crow and of course, they looked like Foghorn Leghorn so I liked them as well. We ended up segregating them in a cage of their own at the head of each aisle and they became my pets.