SuperC
Songster
A few weeks ago my best layer started laying soft shell eggs out of the blue. And when I say soft shell, most of the time there isn’t even much of a membrane to speak of, it’s like the yolk and white almost just fall out without much of anything else. Sometimes there is that long tube membrane attached, some times a soft covering with calcium smears, but her last few weeks have been a laying disaster. She acts totally normal and happy and zesty most of the time, but then the late afternoon/evening before she’s due for an egg, she gets quiet, slow, and sorta hides and sits a bit fluffy. Then at 5pm-6pm or so she goes into the box and lays her liquid egg. Then they are put to bed at 7:30 and she’s sorta snapping out of it and in the am she is right as rain, running around happy as sassy as usual and then a few days/a week later, the process repeats. I’m trying what I can but I can’t seem to fix it.
Facts about the flock: 4 hens, fully enclosed run and coop (no free ranging here, but lots of sunshine and fresh air). Main food is free feeding Kalmbach organic GMO free layer crumbles. They get secondary food, (which is doled out as a snack) of Kalmbach henhouse reserve layer food (they like the seeds but we don’t give them much). Snacks (less than 10% of the daily food intake) consists of a mixture of scratch grains and sunflower seeds, mealworms &/or soliderfly larvae & assorted greens (usually organic parsley as it is an egg supportive herb). They also get some scrambled eggs mixed into the breakfast crumbles when it’s cold out (the 4 of them share one scrambled egg). But the bulk of the diet is the organic crumbles
They have free access to grit and oyster shell and they use it all the time. Fresh water 1-2 times a day. All my other hens are doing fine with egg production and shell quality.
This particular Hen is an Orpington and just turned 2 years old. She’s has always been a strong layer- slow starter (10 months old before first egg) but since then she usually lays eggs for 2 days, takes a day off and lays 2 more days and rinse and repeat. She even laid mostly thru her first big molt this last fall (took 2-3 weeks off and then gave an egg every other day or so after that, but did that all thru the molting regrow, and winter as well!). Her eggs have always been PERFECT. Smooth, glossy and a nice even color with strong shells. Then a few weeks ago she seemed sick and down and I found a soft shell mess in the coop and she was back to normal a few hours later. Then she took a week off, and then she did it again. Then took a week off and did it again. It’s been 4 of them now like this.
I have given rooster booster in the water every few days to add probiotics and minerals incase she needed more. I have tried giving her canned tuna 2x a week (just 2 tablespoons at a time) for a protein boost and also a D3 boost to help the calcium absorb better and I have mixed in an extra strength Tums into the tuna to boost her calcium reserves.
I have given her a few doses of Nutri-drench poultry to help boost her up with anything she needs vitamin wise. I knew today she was probably working on an egg soon as it had been a week since her last soft egg. She got her tuna spiked with tums and I put a raw dose of the nutri-drench right into the tuna to make sure she got it(1ml per dosing on the bottle), since I don’t know how much she drinks when it’s in water.
But tonight she did the same thing- a few hours of being low and not her usual self, then a wet plop in the box around 7pm after sitting in the box for 30 minutes and then back to almost normal around 8:30pm at bedtime. Her droppings are normal,
No bugs or mites or anything and she is the picture of a sassy silly chicken except the few hours before an egg and a few after.
I just don’t know what else to do for her. I love her to bits and don’t care if she never gives me another egg again, but I hate to see her be so happy and normal all week and then be a sad, puffed baby for a few hours and then drop a wet egg in the box (I’d also like to stop replacing my nesting pad once a week too- but that’s beside the point). She went from a champion layer who was always trying to go broody, to this all of a sudden inability to lay an egg and I don’t know what else to try for her health and shell repair. We don’t have a vet, and I think there maybe is one in town who sees chickens, but what would they do for her? Can this even be fixed? All my others are doing great and laying great so it can’t be the food or environment, or the other things they get, so what is happening and how can i help her thru this? She is such a Velcro lovebug and I want her to feel her best and not risk anything that might be wrong if she has the egg break inside her.
What can I do?!
Facts about the flock: 4 hens, fully enclosed run and coop (no free ranging here, but lots of sunshine and fresh air). Main food is free feeding Kalmbach organic GMO free layer crumbles. They get secondary food, (which is doled out as a snack) of Kalmbach henhouse reserve layer food (they like the seeds but we don’t give them much). Snacks (less than 10% of the daily food intake) consists of a mixture of scratch grains and sunflower seeds, mealworms &/or soliderfly larvae & assorted greens (usually organic parsley as it is an egg supportive herb). They also get some scrambled eggs mixed into the breakfast crumbles when it’s cold out (the 4 of them share one scrambled egg). But the bulk of the diet is the organic crumbles
They have free access to grit and oyster shell and they use it all the time. Fresh water 1-2 times a day. All my other hens are doing fine with egg production and shell quality.
This particular Hen is an Orpington and just turned 2 years old. She’s has always been a strong layer- slow starter (10 months old before first egg) but since then she usually lays eggs for 2 days, takes a day off and lays 2 more days and rinse and repeat. She even laid mostly thru her first big molt this last fall (took 2-3 weeks off and then gave an egg every other day or so after that, but did that all thru the molting regrow, and winter as well!). Her eggs have always been PERFECT. Smooth, glossy and a nice even color with strong shells. Then a few weeks ago she seemed sick and down and I found a soft shell mess in the coop and she was back to normal a few hours later. Then she took a week off, and then she did it again. Then took a week off and did it again. It’s been 4 of them now like this.
I have given rooster booster in the water every few days to add probiotics and minerals incase she needed more. I have tried giving her canned tuna 2x a week (just 2 tablespoons at a time) for a protein boost and also a D3 boost to help the calcium absorb better and I have mixed in an extra strength Tums into the tuna to boost her calcium reserves.
I have given her a few doses of Nutri-drench poultry to help boost her up with anything she needs vitamin wise. I knew today she was probably working on an egg soon as it had been a week since her last soft egg. She got her tuna spiked with tums and I put a raw dose of the nutri-drench right into the tuna to make sure she got it(1ml per dosing on the bottle), since I don’t know how much she drinks when it’s in water.
But tonight she did the same thing- a few hours of being low and not her usual self, then a wet plop in the box around 7pm after sitting in the box for 30 minutes and then back to almost normal around 8:30pm at bedtime. Her droppings are normal,
No bugs or mites or anything and she is the picture of a sassy silly chicken except the few hours before an egg and a few after.
I just don’t know what else to do for her. I love her to bits and don’t care if she never gives me another egg again, but I hate to see her be so happy and normal all week and then be a sad, puffed baby for a few hours and then drop a wet egg in the box (I’d also like to stop replacing my nesting pad once a week too- but that’s beside the point). She went from a champion layer who was always trying to go broody, to this all of a sudden inability to lay an egg and I don’t know what else to try for her health and shell repair. We don’t have a vet, and I think there maybe is one in town who sees chickens, but what would they do for her? Can this even be fixed? All my others are doing great and laying great so it can’t be the food or environment, or the other things they get, so what is happening and how can i help her thru this? She is such a Velcro lovebug and I want her to feel her best and not risk anything that might be wrong if she has the egg break inside her.
What can I do?!
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