Soft Shelled Egg

My three girls have been in various stages of molt for the past several months. Their "hatchday" was March 27, 2006 so this was their first major molt and I'm therefore new to all of this.

Someone has laid a soft shelled egg off the roost and I'm wondering who and if this is normal when laying resumes after a molt. This egg was very light colored, nearly a soft pink.

Elsie (EE) stopped laying in mid-September, laid 9 eggs in November, and hasn't laid an egg since including all of December. She's not the most hearty layer, so this isn't entirely outside her norm. Her feathers have been fully grown back for weeks. She lays sage colored eggs, so I don't think the egg from the roost was hers.

Penny (RIR) stopped laying in mid-October for a week and a half, lost some feathers, laid sporatically through November, then stopped after just two eggs in December. Her feathers are mostly back.

Ruthie (RIR) stopped laying the last week of November and didn't lay all through December. She is still scruffy looking and not at all her usual snuggly self.

Last week, someone started eating the oyster shell that I always have available free choice. Yesterday, Penny laid an egg in the nest box. It looked completely normal, if not slightly lighter in color than her usual eggs.

This morning, when I went to let the girls out to their run, I found the very soft shelled egg under the roost. It was laid less than 24 hours after Penny's egg of yesterday. Could this still be her egg? It was smaller than her usual egg size (Ruthie's eggs are smaller than Pennys') but Ruthie is showing no signs of laying.

What's up with this?

Edited to add pictures:

Picture of the girls eggs, taken last Spring:
From left: Elsie's, Ruthie's, Penny's




Picture of the soft shelled egg I found this morning. I scooped it out of the litter, thus the litter chunks in there.




Picture of Penny's egg from yesterday and the soft shelled one found today:

 

Thanks for your replies Churkenduse and Bigzio. To answer some of your questions. . .

No, I don't add additional light to their coop. These are primarily pets, as my kids would tell you, and the eggs are just a benefit. We do live in So Cal so we are certainly getting more hours of light than those who live in the North, but it's still not 14 hours (more like 10). My concern is less with the number of eggs but more the quality of that one egg. We have never had anything close to a soft egg here so it was a surprise to see it. Usually, my girls eggs are as hard as rocks!

I don't add any additional calcium to their food but I do provide free choice oyster shell at all times. For weeks, no one touched it but I noticed that someone in the coop was eating it again this past week so I figured someone would be laying soon.

Earlier today I thought the answer was going to be found. Penny (the egg layer from the day before) was in the nest box midday, about when I would have expected her to lay again if she were going to. However, while she cackled, there was no egg in the box. So, at this point I can't say with any certainty whether she laid a good one then a quick bad one, or whether Ruthie is responsible for the bad one. Will keep you all informed.

 

Thanks again, guys!

So, how long are these glitches supposed to last? I've been watching the girls carefully, checking vents, watching for squatting and red combs and have decided that Penny is the likely culprit of the soft shelled egg.

After laying the normal egg on Jan. 2 and the soft shelled egg on Jan. 3rd, there were no other eggs, regular or soft shelled, until now. This morning I found another soft shelled egg under the roost.

The girls eat laying pellets and they have oyster shell available free choice. I have given them yogurt several times recently, and added some Avia Charge 2000 to their diet as well as some bird vitamins that were recommended by their vet.

Still, this was what I found today (although I rinsed it off for you all). It feels somewhat like the thickness of a bandage.



Any thoughts on anything else I can do?

 

If I get another soft shelled egg perhaps I'll try the same thing, Lynn. There weren't any eggs today, at least as far as I can tell. This morning, I very finely ground up some of the oyster shell that I have in there and noticed that someone really went to town in the oyster shell hopper today. I hope that's good news.

Traditionally, my girls have been great about making use of the oyster shell. And until this recent event, the girls have had really hard shells which is why this threw me for a loop. But, clearly this calls for a new way of looking at things. I greatly appreciate you all sharing your experiences.