Soft shelled eggs and droopy looking hen

[Gypsy07]

I have seven laying hens all less than a year old. Up till now they've all been fairly healthy after I got rid of the mites they arrived with! I've never found any soft shelled eggs up till now, but today I got two. My sister saw one being laid outside, but she didn't notice which hen laid it, and later on I found a sticky yolky mess in their nesting box, but no shell pieces, just a kind of rubbery skin. I got five other eggs today, all with the normal tough shells. Now I notice one of my hens is looking very under the weather. She's been sitting hunkered down in one spot for a few hours and her feathers are all puffled up. I picked her up and prodded her about a bit and her abdomen feels soft but not swollen. I'm not sure how it would normally feel though as I haven't really examined any of them in that way before.

I feed them layers pellets and layers mash, with poultry spice sprinkled on (that's a powder mineral supplement with calcium in it) and I put a special chicken multivitamin in their water. They free range for 6-10 hours every day and get a handful of corn most days too. Oh, and every few days I feed them back their own shells too.

What should I do about the puffled up hen? And what should I do about the eggs?

 

[teach1rusl]

Maybe nothing, unless it lasts for quite a while. I've had incidents before, a few times when laying first started, and once since. A few times the incidents occured, the hen looked "off," kind of hunched over unnaturally. I don't recall whether puffing up was part of it or not, as it's been a while. Mine all ended up on the roost...well, one rubber egg thing did end up in the nest box. Anyhow, my point is, it could just be a temporary glitch, and things may be fine two days from now. If by the end of the week things aren't back to normal, then I would probably contain her to insure that she's only filling up on her layer feed. You can also try yogurt mixed with your crushed egg shell, but I would limit any other "extras" for that time period.

 

[Gypsy07]

Oh. Okay, so I totally didn't realise it might just be 'one of these things' that happens every so often! In that case I'll cancel the full scale panic and just keep a closer eye on them all for a week or so. Thanks for the reassurances...