Soft Shelled Eggs!!

[maldoncrazylady]

My rare breed girlies are now coming into lay, and after months of waiting Im very pleased, but one of them is laying soft shelled eggs! Im not sure which one it is but when I go to the box its always messy in there because the egg has either been eaten or sat on and squashed, what do I do to help her sort it out, any ideas please??

 

[Mahonri]

I have the same problem with one of my leghorns. I'll be rehoming her soon.

 

[bobbieschicks]

It's not unusual for new pullets to have softshelled eggs. Since she's just started laying I would give her some time to let her body work it out. Mine laid a weeks worth of small good eggs then almost a week's worth of softshelled. I was convinced she was defective and then suddenly she laid a good egg. She's laid a good regular size egg every day since that time. My Snow White, White Leghorn, has laid 43 eggs in a row without stopping and all of them good. Only thing I did differently was give her Purina Layena with Omega 3 feed (which she snubbed at first) and offer oyster shell at all times in a dish. Hang in there - she'll get it worked out.

 

[bobbieschicks]

I have the same problem with one of my leghorns. I'll be rehoming her soon.

Unless she's an older hen, I wouldn't rehome that Leghorn just yet. WLs are egg making machines - they just may need a little time to work it out at the start. I thought I would have to rehome or eat my beautiful Snow White, but she's turned out to be a very reliable layer.

 

[terryg]

While she gets her laying cycle sorted out you want to make sure that she and the other birds don't get into the habit of eating that soft egg. Remove it from the nesting box immediately. Also, soft eggs can be a sign of stress. Is she being hassled off the nesting box by the other girls? Is there a predator around? For those of you reading this post who have older hens, soft eggs are often a sign of over-indulgent owners feeding too many treats! I've written about that in my blog here: http://www.hencam.com/henblog/2011/07/thin-shelled-eggs-old-hens-and-the-miracle-diet-cure/