I'm getting a soft shell egg laid on the board below the roosts just about every other day now. I suspect it is my Polish hen. The four Red Stars have been laying for a few weeks now, and while I occasionally will get one of them laying from the roost, it's always a nice, hard shell. The Dominiques have started as well, but those eggs are consistently in the nest boxes, still pullet size, a lighter brown than the Stars and again, good hard shells. The reasons I suspect the Polish are: 1) I'm pretty sure the others are all laying and I think I've identified their eggs. Those are all good hard shells, and almost always in the nest boxes, and 2) the Polish is always the last one off the roosts, sometimes an hour or so after the others have gone outside when the pop door opens, and this soft shell egg is always on the board, never the floor or in a box. They have oyster shell free choice in the run, and I crush up and feed the eggshells back to them, as well. Is there something else I can do, or is it likely to be something that will correct itself as she matures? Or am I just going to get soft shells from this one? Now, I did not get the two Polish for eggs (good thing, as one turned out to be a rooster! ), so it's not really a big deal, but there is a mess to clean up every time she (whoever she is) lays one of these. Any ideas?
Sometimes birds have a defective shell gland. There is no way to fix it. They are incapable of laying hard-shelled eggs. Some would cull her as she is likely to have laying issues down the line that prove to be fatal. I am of the mindset that if you were not looking for eggs from her then enjoy her for the visual variety that she adds to your flock. She will never lay a decent egg with the defective shell gland, and she may or may not have problems in the long run, but since no one can predict when or if that will happen I say enjoy her while she lasts. Sorry I couldn't be more help. Good luck with her.
My 7 Lt. Brahmas all started laying about a month or so ago. When they began, I was upset cuz the started laying from the roost at night and the eggs were super soft shells. I did not worry about it as I thought perhaps they were just maturing into egg layers. It happen about 3 times and now 6 weeks later they are laying normal eggs.
