soft shells

[jsetmayer]

hello i give my hens organic layer feed and have been since i have had them and once in awhile i get a soft shell and right now my new wyandotte who has just been laying for about a week is taking a long time to lay and i found a perfectly formed egg this morning but soft shell it had 2 yolks, to bad i didnt eat it as i am not sure how long it was there it was behind the nest box, today she kept going to the box but no egg, now from what i understand this is a lack of calcium so do i need to add additional calcium to this organic feed, this is the second company that i am getting organic layer feed from and the same problem. i gave them some plain yogert today to see if that would help but i dont know how much extra calcium they need without harming there ovaries, they also get oyster shell free feed, except for the last few days cause i have a bantam in there with the other 2 and she is not laying yet and i have no where to seperate her but i was told that she is close enough to laying that she can have the layer feed as well and the shell, i need all the expert advice i can get. thank you jacque, florida keys i have lost 2 birds that i raised from biddies so i get upset easily when something is not right! dont want to lose any more.

 

[1-duckling]

Always have free choice calcium available (oyster shell). It helps out quite a bit. A way to give a quick dose of calcium, so I've read in many other posts, is to dissolve a tums in the water. Last thing anyone wants is to have a egg bound chicken. It's got to be awful painful for the bird. There's a lot of good info in the forum about helping egg bound chickens if it does get to that point. Hopefully not!

 

[Hoosiermomma]

Oyster shell or crushed egg shells are what we use.