Softs shelled eggs

[BarnyardD]

My 1 year old red sex link, Henrietta, has suddenly began to lay weak or soft shelled eggs every day for about the last two weeks. She has been a wonderful layer. My chickens have always had free-choice oyster shell, and a good quality layer feed...plus I occasionally will give the girls some of their own eggs shells that have been baked and ground up. She is perfectly fine otherwise and is one of our favorites....we have 5 red sex links. Any ideas? This has been sudden....but has gone on every day for the last two weeks.....and she has never missed a day of laying since she began at about 18 weeks. The bad thing is...she has a tendency to eat these eggs once she drops them.....I watched her the last couple of days lay the egg....you can pretty much time her laying to the minute.....I wonder what the deal is....I make sure there is plenty of calcium available....I would appreciate any ideas or suggestions....thanks

 

[kodiakchicken]

Have you actually seen her eating the oyster shell? Maybe she's stopped eating it for some reason. Maybe mix some in with her crumbles?

We mix our oyster shell with the crumbles and even when we don't vary the mixture, I've noticed that some of my girls will go through a phase where their shells are softer and then harder. I don't know much about their egg cycle, but do chickens maybe have a point during the year when they have a calcium deficiency?

 

[zigzag3337]

I agree that you need to make sure that she is eating the oyster shells. I have been told that giving the eggs back to the chickens can backfire and cause them to eat their own, so I don't do that. The oyster shells here at my feed store is 10 #'s for $2.50. That last me a good while.

Maybe if you quarantine her and give her just a little of laying crumbles with a lot of oyster shells mixed with her food and see if the shell hardens back up.

Good Luck

 

[BarnyardD]

Yep....in fact...of my 5 hens....she seems to be the first to eat the oyster shell...and seems to get more than her fair share of it....thats why I'm so confounded with this.....