Soft-shelled eggs

[into_my_web]

A little while ago we had a hen that was laying soft-shelled eggs and an egg broke inside her and she passed away.
We are noticing that once again we are getting soft-shelled eggs and we are very concerned.
We have tried oyster shell and we mix it with the feed but it's not really helping.
Does anyone know anyways to fix this, to harden the eggs again? Maybe some calcium supplement or something?

 

[paddock36]

How about drying out the old eggshells that you would otherwise toss out and feed them back to them. Maybe that might help if they don't like the oyster shell.

 

[into_my_web]

We usually break up the eggs that we don't use but they don't seem to like the shell.

 

[dieselgrl48]

Have you tried layer feed pellet's or crumbles?Some smaller bantam birds really wont eat the oyster shell readily because most of the time its too large.Same with standard grit if birds are penned and not allowed to forage in the dirt naturaly.I Once used and old blender I had and ground the oyster shell into basicly a powder and mixed it in feed for my serama hen that got the problem once of soft shell egg's.You can put old eggshells also in oven and try grinding them in an old blender too.I had gotten one that worked great at a yard sale for about $4 .They wont know the difference hehe.Hope your hen gets better soon and so sorry about your lost one.

 

[feathersnuggles]

You can give an emergency dose of 1 crushed Tums mixed with plain active-culture yogurt. Plus, if you have it, add 1/2 teaspoon of cod liver oil (for the vitamin D). Getting enough calcium is crucial for hens who are laying lots of eggs - like this time of year. Feeding crushed egg shells is not the greatest supplement as the calcium in egg shells is not as bio-available for hens as is the calcium carbonate of crushed oyster shells. Tums is not calcium carbonate, but it is easier to do an emergency dose with Tums than with oyster shell. So, don't depend on feeding them Tums; it's just an emergency measure. They need oyster shell, long term.

Do NOT stop offering crushed oyster shell. But don't put it into their feed. Offer it in a free-choice style dish, always available, so that as a hen needs it, she can help herself to what she needs, when she needs it. And she will, if you make sure your oyster shell dish is always topped off and full. I learned this lesson recently. Not all hens will continue eating oyster shell when it gets low in the dish and powdery. They'll skip it, and then their eggs will become rubbery and difficult for them to push a soft egg out of the body.

I just cleaned & dried out a large tuna fish can and nailed it, at the height of their backs, to the side of their run (under a roof so it stays dry). I fill it with oyster shell all the time & keep it full so they will feel like eating it. And, even though they have a very high-quality feed, my hens eat a LOT of oyster shell. I see them eating it all the time.