Soft shelled eggs.. am I doing the right thing?

[salsss]

I'm new to this but have been reading all of your wonderful advice on here for a while.

I have three red sexlinik pullets who are in together; they just started laying about 2 weeks ago and are 16.5 weeks old. I separated them for other reasons from the rest of the flock (they were stalking some younger chickens) and I think all three are laying. They started to lay at 14.5 weeks...very young.

The first week, I got one egg per day, sometimes two. And an occasional soft shelled egg. Not a problem, they're young, right?

As soon as I saw an egg, I added oyster shell to their coop. They seemed to be eating it.

This weekend I got two egg bound chickens with soft eggs. Both have passed them after having baths and eating calcium.
i've started all three on layer crumbles--Purina organic. Plus the oyster.

It appears now I have only one chicken laying normal eggs. I've been crushing a calcium pill (600 mg) onto some layer feed and then wetting it all down to make mash....they love it and are eating it..once per day for two days now.

These girls free range for a few hours a day.

Am I doing the right thing? I'm not sure what else to do...

 

[Pork Pie]

IME, it can take a good few weeks before some pullets get the hang of laying "normally". You have done all you can, so i would just suggest keeping your fingers crossed that they get their plumbing sorted out soon.

CT

 

[salsss]

So what happens when the vent looks all swollen... and the hen is acting normally? Does she get a bath or do I wait until she is acting funky?

Also am I giving then too much calcium or anything?

 

[salsss]

Okay, I just checked her again. She (within the last 45 min.) had two eggs without a shell.

Now of the three laying, one does a great job and the other two give eggs with no shell and have problems doing it. I'm pretty discouraged.

 

[Pork Pie]

The calcium you are giving is ok. I think patience may be the name of the game - hopefully they will sort themselves out soon. Re: swollen vent - i hope that others with experience on this matter will help out.

CT