soft shells / broken eggs for sometime now

[Rkhan]

Hi there
I have seven chickens and one of them has been laying soft shell eggs on and off and they break in the nesting box. Recently, for the past 4 days her eggs have been consistently soft shell and broken. They do have access to oyster shells. Should I give her calcium supplement (600mg per tablet) as am emergency aid. I do not have Tums. Please advice.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Has this chicken ever laid hard shelled eggs or is this a new layer? What are you feeding, layer or all flock/grower? Have you ever seen her eating the oyster shells?

If she's a new layer, I wouldn't panic yet, as they can have some glitches as they ramp up into laying. If this is a hen that's already laid hard shelled eggs before, but you do not know for sure if she's eating oyster shell, you can try wetting a small amount of feed and then mixing oyster shell into it, and giving that to her 2-3x a week. If it works she should show results within 2 weeks or so.

 

[Rkhan]

Has this chicken ever laid hard shelled eggs or is this a new layer? What are you feeding, layer or all flock/grower? Have you ever seen her eating the oyster shells?

If she's a new layer, I wouldn't panic yet, as they can have some glitches as they ramp up into laying. If this is a hen that's already laid hard shelled eggs before, but you do not know for sure if she's eating oyster shell, you can try wetting a small amount of feed and then mixing oyster shell into it, and giving that to her 2-3x a week. If it works she should show results within 2 weeks or so.

She has been laying since Jan/feb. She has produced hard shell eggs and I don’t remember seeing her eat it. Maybe she has but every time I’ve put our oyster shells in the past, I’ve gotten hard shells but this time nothing.
surprisingly I didn’t get any soft shell eggs yesterday and I know that she Didn’t skip a day cuz all of my chickens laid yesterday.
thoughts?

 

[aart]

every time I’ve put our oyster shells in the past, I’ve gotten hard shells but this time nothing.

Leave the OS out all the time.

 

[rosemarythyme]

surprisingly I didn’t get any soft shell eggs yesterday and I know that she Didn’t skip a day cuz all of my chickens laid yesterday.
thoughts?

Well you can try supplementing a little bit of calcium as I mentioned above, maybe just once a week at this point, and see if that keeps things working properly.