Still having broken eggs...

[mendozer]

a while ago i posted about one of my four hens always laying eggs that break and fall through the slatted floor. So she's not even in the nesting box when she's laying. and I'm finding the shells to be sometimes hard and sometimes soft. They have feed with 3.5-4% calcium plus free choice shell outside. Calcium in the diet is not an issue. Is it possible that one isn't absorbing it properly and what can be done about it?

Or what if she's laying on the slats on purpose, then tried eating it and breaks it? I don't have security cameras in there so I'll never know!

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

I say its the second one.
Put up a peice or wire or something so that when she lays there, the egg doesn't break, or so she can't lay there. Do you ever find more then one gg a day? That could explain the soft shells, but that can cause issues.

Sorry I don't know much more

 

[mendozer]

i never find them on the day it happens. when i clean out the poop drawers (which lay under the hen house floor), i have eggs mixed in with the poop. Also, i know it's mainly one hen b/c her eggs are white contrasted to everyone else's brown, despite being the same breed. Very rarely will i see a brown one broken.

however, on a side note, once when i let them out in the morning, they quickly ran under the hen house and gobbled something up (maybe yolk from one that fell through?).

*quick reference since it may be confusing...i have an elevated hen house with a ramp to the grass. under the slatted floor are poop drawers. under the drawers is about 2 ft of height to the ground. that's what I mean when I say run under*