soft shell egg?

[andreaz]

Is normal for an egg to have a soft shell? I think I might have just picked up a fresh egg. Could this mean a malnourished chicken? She's a holland chicken and 6 months old.

 

[Ridgerunner]

You can check in the Egg Quality Handbook to see what they say about soft shelled eggs.

Egg Quality Handbook
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/ourbooks/1/egg-quality-handbook/

A hen's internal egg laying factory is fairly complicated. There are several parts that have to come together to get it right. I think it is amazing so many actually get it right to start with. But sometimes it takes a while for a pullet to get all the kinks worked out of that egg laying factory. Egg shells being soft or totally missing is a fairly common mess-up for a pullet if she is going to mess up.

I don't know how long she has been laying at six months of age. If it is less than 2 weeks, you might try a little patience and see if she gets it straightened out.

Something else that can cause an older hen to lay a soft-shelled egg. Sometimes a hen accidentally releases two egg yolks instead of one. If they are released at the same time, you might get a double-yolked egg. If there is a gap between when they are released, you can get two eggs in one day. Sometimes these eggs are so close together that the shell gland does not have enough time to make enough shell material for the second egg, so it comes out shell-less or with a really thin shell. As long as this is a rare occurrence, this is not a big deal.

It is possible the hen cannot process calcium properly. She may be eating plenty but something is wrong with her system and she just can't use the calcium that she eats. That means her body is messed up.

It is also quite possible she is not geting enough calcium. I don't know how you are feeding them. If your feed is Layer and that is mostly what she eats, she should be getting enough calcium. She may be free ranging and foraging for a lot of what she eats or you may be feeding her a lot of stuff other than Layer. It never hurts to offer oyster shell on the side in any case. Most hens will eat oyster shell for the calcium if it is available and they need it. Occasionally a hen does not have the right instincts and won't eat the oyster shell, but that is fairly rare.

If you have others that are laying good eggs and just one that is messing up, it is probably related to the individual hen. If she is the only one laying or all hens are having this problem, I'd look hard at what you are feeding them.

Hope this helps. Good luck!!!