Strangely shaped soft-shelled egg? Nutrient deficiency?

[Winderdear]

I have posted about my hen, Août, before. She has been nearing the end of her first laying cycle (I hope) and has given me 4 or 5 soft-shelled eggs, in between laying normally. I assume she has a nutrient deficiency of some kind, after having laid 4-6 eggs a week since late November of last year. I thought we had gotten past this, as she had been laying eggs with good hard shells once I had introduced Nutri-Drench and then later a calcium and vitamin D3 supplement to their water. However, yesterday she laid a very thin-shelled egg that crumpled and tore once it was laid, and then this morning under their roost bar she had laid this very strangely shaped soft-shelled egg:



That bit on the end is not just a scrap of torn membrane, but is completely enclosed and hollow. Has anyone seen this before? I'm very concerned for Août. I want her egg cycle to just end so she can reset and get her body back into good condition. Is there anything anyone can recommend to help her, beyond what I'm already doing? It seems like she gets better for a week or so, and then this happens again. What kind of deficiency does this sound like? Or could it be something else?

Thank you in advance for any advice you can offer.

 

[Debbie292d]

Hi,

Generally, most egg issues are due to a lack of calcium. It sounds like you're already supplementing calcium for her. We use oyster shell in a dog dish in the coop. The hens eat it when they need it, and otherwise they don't.

That said, so trying to figure out another reason, I have this link to an article about egg quality. I looked and thought #15 was closest to yours. See what you think: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/common-egg-quality-problems.65923/

Continual problems and eggs breaking could be signalling an infection.

 

[ChicNmom]

You should give her the calcium D3 directly to her. Most of us use a human supplement and just pop one in their beak for a few days until the shells harden back up.

 

[Mrs. K]

You know, that is really not like a 'normal' soft shell egg. I think she may have an infection. I think I would pull her from the flock and see, if this continues. Calcium is not going to help an infection.

This time of year, I consider who to keep and who to cull and she would be on my cull list.

Mrs K

 

[nao57]

I support what the others said. This can go away with some calcium. You can get some grit with calcium in it that's inexpensive also. It doesn't cost a lot to treat. And its worth it to try to fix it cheaply because it could come up again with other hens and then you'll know what to do. And it won't cost much. This can happen to good hens also, not just the rejects.

 

[aart]

Looks like a membrane malfunction that was then not properly shelled.
Could just be a ramping down of production prior to molting,
if you are in the northern hemisphere,
you can get some glitches at that time.

 

[ChicNmom]

You know, that is really not like a 'normal' soft shell egg. I think she may have an infection. I think I would pull her from the flock and see, if this continues. Calcium is not going to help an infection.

This time of year, I consider who to keep and who to cull and she would be on my cull list.

Mrs K

Is there such a thing as a "normal" soft shelled egg? It seems that would always be something that was abnormal.

At any rate over the past 12 years of chickens I've only had 3 that needed me to make sure they took the calcium to clear it up. Otherwise they start becoming internal layers (no shell) and that definitely causes infection.

 

[Winderdear]

Thank you all for your advice!

I had been giving her a calcium pill every other night crushed in some scrambled egg, but took a break from it because she stopped eating it, and her eggs seemed to be getting better. I gave her some tonight though, and she ate about half. She has free access to oyster flakes and crushed egg shells all the time, and she does eat them when she has an egg on the way.

I am worried about an infection, but I don’t see any signs other than the occasional soft or very thin shelled egg in between normal laying. She acts strange when she needs to lay a soft egg, and a few hours after she has gotten it out, but then she’s normal Août.

I’m hoping that she is just near the end of her cycle, as @aart mentioned. She has been laying a long time, and is not a hybrid layer. Her flock mate of the same breed, who started laying a week before she did, started molting last week. Fingers crossed that her molt kicks in soon.

That being said, I saw her gobbling down the oyster flakes tonight, so I imagine she’ll lay another egg tomorrow…

 

[ChicNmom]

I am worried about an infection, but I don’t see any signs other than the occasional soft or very thin shelled egg in between normal laying. She acts strange when she needs to lay a soft egg, and a few hours after she has gotten it out, but then she’s normal Août.

It is hard for a hen to push out a soft egg. Their muscles contract but the egg just squishes instead of moving though the oviduct. It's a lot of work.

I'd keep giving extra until her eggs are good and hard or until she molts. She might have gotten deficient and just didn't eat enough oyster or egg shell to fix the problem.

 

[Mrs. K]

A normal, or perhaps common soft shell egg, looks like an egg, and you can cook it if you can get it to the house intact. Generally if breaks in the coop. But what I meant was the whites and yolk look regular. This egg was not like that - but granted it might have been broke before the picture.