Soft shell egg

[Mikee1948]

I have been getting a soft shelled egg, breaks with very little pressure, from one of my hens. I have given them nothing but the best food, and free range in my garden, I have one who has gone through a molt and is beginning to get her feathers back, and I think it's her. They are not stressed in any way. When the other hens go to lay, they choose the same box, and end up squashing it.

 

[ChirpyChicks1]

Have you checked for mites?

Is the food layer feed or are you offering oyster shell?

It might have something to do with the molt though, how long has this been happening?

 

[Mikee1948]

Oh, couple of months now. I did spray her, and the inside of the coop with something to rid her of any mites. They used to have oyster shell, now they are fed purina omega feed.

 

[ChirpyChicks1]

My understanding is that unless they are being fed layer feed then they must have oyster shell for calcium. I haven't heard of omega feed before, is it layer feed?

 

[RaisingtheBars]

I have four pullets that have just begun to lay and found a soft shell egg today. They are on a finisher ration that says no need to supplement with oyster shell. Think I might anyway, now! Others online indicate that very young birds may start out with this problem before it normalizes as they mature. Should I just switch to layer feed? And, is the soft shell egg safe to eat?

 

[aggiemae]

soft shells are common when hens first start to lay. As for older hens, we have one (Buff Orp) that did this regularly when the days were very long. She was laying actually two and a few time even three eggs a day We tried everything but the only thing that help was limiting her light exposure to 10 hours a day. After two weeks of this she was back to laying one normal egg a day though sometimes they still had very thin brittle shells. One that the days are getting shorter her eggs are back to normal.