Sudden stoppage of laying

[aart]

Well just to update this...the hen is still not laying, yesterday she went into broodyness, and SOMEONE is breaking eggs in there because I found yolk. So I guess I have to decide what I want to do about this. I'll go read some more on egg eating to see if I can find a way to narrow down who is doing it. It's not every day either which is a bummer. If she's sitting in there all day though and another hen comes in and lays in the spot next to hers (it's one communal nestbox with two laying spots) I could see how she might peck at that egg out of boredom if nothing else.

Anyhow that's the update, thank you all for your ideas. I guess she's just done

Bummer...sometimes lemons can't be turned into lemonade.

I thought I had an egg eater recently, wet spots in the nests with some shell fragments, sometimes no shell fragments or yolk residue, which is not unusual with egg eaters, they just can't get it all out of the nest bedding, but I also know a couple were laying thin shelled eggs and one laying soft shelled eggs.
There was a too curious pullet (too young to lay) loitering about the nest bank and I found some peck dents in a few eggs. Some clues, but no real evidence of what exactly was happening.

Last evening I observed a hen in a strange stance in the run, another hen peering intently at her nethers, then she popped out a small white blob, which I was barely able to grab before they ate it. Then not 5 minutes later they were all pecking at a puddle of 'whites' on the ground. Dissecting the blob gave no real clues, was maybe some membrane and albumen. So I concluded that she may be the wet spot leaver rather than one of them being an egg eater.

This all has no real bearing on your situation, but I present it here because it's on my mind (so, gratuitous catharsis) and it gives an example of how hard it is to pinpoint issues unless you happen to be right there observing when a vital clue becomes visible....before they eat it-haha. There are several hens in a certain cross group that have always laid funky eggs regularly, the one observed last night is one of the those, something just not right in the egg machine with those girls and they are on the soup list anyway so I probably won't spend much time with any further investigation.

 

[7 chicken army]

I do appreciate your info. Today I had the hens out and one was in the nest box laying. When she got done I opened the nest box and took out the eggs. One had a shell that was incredibly thin, I've not seen that before and I'm thinking that may be the source of any eggs they've eaten, as the decoy old eggs I put in there with them haven't been pecked at. So that's one mystery solved and another one presented. I don't feed oyster shell as they eat feather fixer and I thought it had an appropriate amount of calcium in it, but now I'm going to buy some to see if it helps, and also dry up old eggshells and grind them and feed them. This incident also tells me who's laying the thin shelled egg, as I don't think that egg would have survived unless it was the one just laid, the shell was way too thin. And I spotted who was in there.
Anyhow I just thought I'd update the egg eating issue. They're definitely eating them but it's because the egg is breaking because of its thin shell, not that they're going after regular eggs. At least I hope so.

 

[aart]

This shelled eggs are fair game to eat IMO.....they are easily broken being stepped on, then who can blame them<shrugs>
Interesting that you've not seen one before, maybe they've been eating them..I've been regularly checking nests for wetness since what I observed.
She's slowing down the machine and getting ready to molt...or slowing down to go broody.....funky eggs can happen in either case.

 

[junebuggena]

It's their natural instinct to clean up the nest boxes if an egg breaks. At least you know what the issue is now. There are lots of reasons for thin shelled or shell-less, besides a lack of calcium. Older hens, young pullets, hens that are just about to molt or go broody, or hens that are just starting to lay after molting or brooding are all prone to those sorts of problems.