Sometimes it takes a lot of calcium citrate to help an old hen build an egg shell

[azygous]

I have a seven-year old Easter Egger named Wheezie. She's always been one of my favorites because she's very smart and lovable and knows her name and she demands cuddles no matter what else is happening. When she began laying in February after fall break, her eggs all were coming out without a shell. She's been courting disaster with these shell-less eggs, and a few times, she was eggbound and it was touch and go.

I've been giving her calcium citrate every day since February trying to build up her reserves, hoping to see a normal egg from her, but settling for not having a soft egg break inside her. All of her eggs were either smashed wet spots in the nest or a puddled mess on the poop board come morning. This is what she has been getting every single day.

Last night at roosting time, Wheezie was in egg crisis mode, I gave her an extra calcium, and put her on the perch. Early this morning sometime, she made it to the nest, and I found this.

It's thin and dented but, by golly, it's a shell!!

Now, I have reason to hope that her shells might keep on getting better, heading for a normal egg one day soon.

I'm posting this thread to urge you all to get a bottle of calcium citrate and keep it in your run so it's handy to give to a hen that is having egg issues. The stuff really works. Just pop a tablet into the beak each day until you see normal eggs.

 

[townchicks]

This is good to know. I have a 3 yo EE that has off and on shelless eggs and has been egg bound several times as well. I treat her with calcium citrate with D3 when she was eggbound, but I have wondered if I should give her some on a regular basis. They do have oyster shell free choice and are on layer feed. I haven't ever seen her eat oyster shell though. I worry about too much calcium.

 

[azygous]

For calcium to cause problems, mostly with the kidneys, it would need to be given in large amounts for a very long period.

Two years ago, I had another EE hen Ethel, Wheezie's brooder mate, who had an even worse egg issue - double ovulation and release of two eggs each cycle and very poor shells or no shells. She was eggbound from this once, and she was getting calcium citrate every day for two months until her ovulation cycle finally reset and she's been laying one egg per cycle with good shells ever since.

If your hen is laying eggs with questionable shells or no shells, she would benefit from a citrate tablet each day until her eggs are coming out normal quality. Then she can go back to relying on oyster shell for her calcium needs.

 

[rosemarythyme]

They do have oyster shell free choice and are on layer feed. I haven't ever seen her eat oyster shell though. I worry about too much calcium.

Yes too much calcium could be detrimental in the long run, but not enough (especially if the bird requires more than she's taking in, and won't do it on her own) could be detrimental in the far nearer future.

My head hen (about 6 yrs old) still lays sporadically, but if left "untreated" her eggs have very poor quality shells. 2 of her eggs broke in the nest box early this season. I do see her eating oyster shell from time to time, but she needs more than what she's eating on her own, so while she's laying I supplement her twice a week with oyster shell mixed into a bit of wet layer feed.

Her eggs aren't currently great but they have a thin (but solid) shell, and hold together well enough to be brought inside and eaten as next-egg-up (I wouldn't trust them to hold up to hard boiling, that's for sure!)

Maybe the excess calcium will cause issues 3 years from now. But having a broken egg stuck inside could do a lot more damage 3 weeks or 3 months from now.

 

[Sueby]

I had had a red that had shell issues (& of course @rosemarythyme was so helpful!) - I did a lot of research & found this interesting, it convinced me I was not giving too much calcium as they sure do use a LOT:

https://www.feedstrategy.com/poultry-nutrition/understanding-daily-calcium-cycle-in-layer-hens/

'Let us examine the daily balance of calcium intake and output in a layer hen. She is about 35 weeks of age, at the peak of her egg production cycle. Under most commercial situations, she is likely to consume about 100 grams of a feed containing 4 percent total calcium (and no more than 0.4 percent total phosphorus). Thus, her daily intake of calcium is about 4,000 mg. The majority of this feed is consumed during the first hours after daybreak, whereas a small amount might be available during the rest of the day, depending on appetite and feed management practices.

From the 4,000 mg of calcium ingested, the hen will lose (in feces) about 500 mg as indigestible. This is 12.5 percent of total calcium intake, which means there is considerable room for improving calcium digestibility. Another 400 mg of calcium will be excreted through urine, whereas 100 mg of calcium will be returned to the bones' reserves, leaving about 3,000 mg for the egg. Of these, 2,000 mg will go to the eggshell and the remaining to yolk and albumen formation.'

 

[townchicks]

Thanks everybody. My girl Louise's shells have been good now for a couple of months after a rocky start up from winter break. I worry about egg binding a lot, because she had 4 episodes last summer. The soaks and calcium always did the trick, but scary! Supplements in soft food never worked because she's bottom hen and never got any. I think now I'm going to dose preemptively a couple of times a week this summer and see how it goes.

 

[Kiki]

All of my chickens are 6 years old and they all lay hard shell eggs.
I have not yet had to supplement with any type of calcium.
I feed layer crumble feed.

 

[azygous]

Thank you @Sueby for contributing some very valuable and interesting information to this thread. Few people are aware of the extent that calcium is crucial to a hen's health and body functions, not just egg laying.

My biggest concern for my hen is that if she isn't absorbing enough calcium to make a decent shell, the risk of sudden death syndrome increases. This happens when a hen has low calcium levels and her body pulls all the available calcium from her blood stream to make a shell and this robs her heart of calcium needed to keep it beating, causing a heart attack and death.

This is why I keep the bottle of citrate in my run so it's handy to give a hen exhibiting signs of having trouble passing an egg. My thinking is that giving her an easily absorbable cacium tablet on her way in to lay a difficult egg could help her avoid sudden death from her body draining all her available calcium. Egg laying can be risky business for a hen under some circumstances.

 

[azygous]

I think I should take a moment and describe the behavior of a hen who is exhibiting signs they might be having a problem egg even before getting into a nest.

I'll use my EE/Legbar cross Ladybug as an example. Last night just before roosting, six-year old Ladybug was very inactive compared to her usual bullying-head-hen-wanna-be-peck-everyone-within-beak-range usual behavior. Upon final flock check at dusk, I found her in a nest box. I pulled her out and gave her a calcium citrate tablet and stuck her back in the nest. This morning there was a blob of poop and a smashed thin-shell egg. I gave her another calcium pill this morning.

The "signs" were as follows: lethargy, departure from normal behavior, and installing herself in a nest at the opposite end of the day from when hens usually head to a nest. Other signs are tail held down low and flat, and in Ladybug's case, her Legbar "flag" tail was at half mast.

 

[Cryss]

I have given those supplements but usually crushed them first. Are chickens able to swallow those big pills whole? That would certainly save me several extra steps just to give the supplement.