Soft shelled eggs and clear flakes in hen house

[LindsaySinai]

One of my hens has laid soft shelled eggs a few times in the past 6 months but as of the last week it has been every day. I read it may be calcium and to feed them they're own egg shells. Do I need to do anything to the shells besides let them dry and grind them? Also, I've noticed a lot of clearish white flakes in the hen house...could that be from mites or some other bug on the chicken. I always find a ton of earwigs in the coop and hen house...is that a problem, do they eat them?? If the soft shell eggs are soiling the house with egg yolk couldn't that cause salmonella??? Can I bleach the wood in the house to sanitize it or will the wood soak up the bleach and be harmful to the chickens?? Sorry for so many questions but I've only had my chickens for about 7 months and I don't live in an area with many chickens.

 

[Judy]

Salmonella is carried by some chickens and passed by way of eggs, so whether it's there or not depends on your chickens. It's a bacteria, it could grow on egg yolk, but the egg yolk won't cause it. For most people, good handwashing is sufficient. You can sanitize a coop with dilute bleach but you need to let it dry thoroughly before letting the chickens back in.

Lots of people feed egg shells back to their chickens. Some dry or "cook" them and some just crush them.

Lice or mites are a good possibility. They are carried by wild birds and can be dropped from a bird flying over so at least a few are pretty common. I'd certainly check them (at night with a flashlight and hopefully a helper) or just treat them with Sevin. Here's a great link on them:

http://ohioline.osu.edu/vme-fact/0018.html

I don't know about the earwigs.