Thin, bumpy shells

[ogfd15]

Hi all,

I'm new here and I'm needing some advice. I have four buff orpington hens and one rooster. It seems that one hen consistently lays eggs with rough bumps on the pointed end. These bumps are as big as a head of a pen and clustered together. They are incorporated into the shell and you can't scratch them off without breaking the shell. Sometimes, there is a fine, sandlike coating also, which can be scraped away. I would say it is too much calcium, but the shells are pretty thin and easy to break on accident, so that makes me think there is a calcium deficiency. Any ideas if this is just a genetic problem with that particular hen? Or is it a calcium issue?

Thanks,
Josh

 

[Ridgerunner]

When you have a problem it’s often helpful to decide if it is a flock problem or an individual chicken problem before you can decide how to handle it. The way I understand your post it’s an individual hen problem. You don’t mention how the shells of the other hens look.

If she is a pullet just starting to lay give her some time. There are a lot of parts in her internal egg making factory and occasionally a pullet needs a week or two to work out all the kinks.

You can look through the Egg Quality Handbook and see if you can better identify which of those are and see what they say about it. It’s written for commercial operations more than for us which might explain some of the comments. Sounds like she may be doing pimples, sandpaper, and thin shells. Pimples and sandpaper are just cosmetic things. Commercial operations will cull those eggs instead of sell them to the general public because some customers would be upset or worried if they saw something like that. The eggs are perfectly safe and will be sold to bakeries or places that use cracked eggs. The thin shells are the ones I’d worry about. They are easily broken by a hen walking on the eggs or moving them around as she is getting ready to lay. That can make a mess of your other eggs or the nest and in some cases can possibly lead to egg eating.

Egg Quality Handbook
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/ourbooks/1/egg-quality-handbook/

Some hens are defective, they may not absorb the calcium correctly from what they eat or their bodies may not use it once it is absorbed. I don’t know how you are feeding them calcium, but if you are not offering oyster shell on the side, try that. It’s possible she will recognize her deficiency and eat some extra. I’d be reluctant to mix oyster shell with their regular feed if the others don’t need the extra calcium. Why force the others to eat excess calcium which can be detrimental to them to fix an individual hen problem?

If it is an individual hen problem and persists, do not hatch any of her eggs. If the thin shells are that thin and consistent they probably would not hatch anyway, especially under a broody. They’d likely break first with her turning them. But it could be genetic and you don’t want to keep those genetics in your flock.

With me the solution would be simple if it persists. She would be permanently removed from my flock. But I imagine your goals are different and that may be harder for you. Good luck!

 

[ogfd15]

Thanks for your advice! The other hens do not seem to have issues other than maybe some thinner shells. They are about 1.5 years old and I just started to feed oyster shell yesterday. I forgot to mention that sometimes there are small granules of egg shell in the white next to the point of the egg. It looks like the pimples on the link you posted, however they're always concentrated at the point of the egg. I plan on culling her from my flock if she doesn't straighten out.

 

[ogfd15]

After I started the oyster shells, it seems the problem has straightened out quite a bit. I plan on watching it a while to make sure this isn't a coincidence. However, I don't understand how extra calcium could reduce the pimples on eggs? Any ideas?