Soft shelled egg...hubby is freaking out!

[The Chicken People]

My DH just came in with our first soft shelled egg! Hes freaking out..Whats this mean? I told him they need oyster shell sprinkled on their feed because they aren't eating it by itself! He was so funny I almost laughed!

 

[Abby's mom]

big man skeered of a shell less egg...lol

 

[RevaVirginia]

If they're as good as soft shelled crabs...send em my way!

Cutting out the middleman, progress isn't always pretty.

 

[Acre of Blessings]

Abby's mom :

big man skeered of a shell less egg...lol

 

[Lupine hens]

We got our first soft shelled egg yesterday. I collected it late last night and kinda freaked out at first until I looked up some info on this site. I felt so much better and knew what action I had to take to try and fix the problem.This site is a wealth of information for newbies for sure!

 

[wombat]

Try offering oyster shell in a separate feeder.

If you've only had one soft shelled egg, you'd probably be wasting a lot of shell sprinkling it on their food. You might want to add some with the food for the first couple of weeks as an introduction, but the separate feeder for the long term.

 

[patman75]

Could be just new chicks laying thier first eggs.

or

Not getting enough calcium. I had this problem and gave my chickens fine ground up oyster shells, crumbles, yogurt and grit mix. A week later she was laying eggs again.

 

[LynneP]

Another cause is moulting- they're stressed by feather production and defer to getting a new coat...I should think it will pass.

 

[MkBorgen]

We had that probably too when they first started laying it may be just because they are the first eggs if they just started. I haven't had any luck offering them oyster shell by itself so we just mix it in to their feed daily. We also think that for awhile they were getting to many treats from the garden so we had to tell everyone to lay off of those and we would be the only ones to give them treats.

 

[The Chicken People]

My Hen have been laying for some time now! I have offered Oyster shell in seperate container always! I started sprinkling their food and everythings fine now! She laid normal egg the next day! My only problem now is the big girls are pecking feathers on lil bits head! I thought she was molting, checked for mites or lice, and then started watching behaviors...they keep pecking her head...no blood..any suggestions on stopping this behavior?