Thin shelled eggs

[Bonnieboo]

My Australorp x Rhode Island Red always lays eggs with thin shells. Once or twice a year she starts laying soft shelled ones for days at a time. I was advised to give her calcium tablets for a week. Whenever ever she lays soft eggs I have found this treatment to be very successful (many thanks to whoever recommended it).
I give the girls plain yoghurt once a week, an occasional can of salmon with the bones crushed up, some grated cheese as a real treat and put a little calcium powder on their layer pellets. She eats everything I give her and is in fact like a vacuum cleaner . My 3 other girls all lay good, hard shelled eggs.
Any Idea what the problem might be? Any advice gratefully received

 

[Rock17]

Sounds like you have done everything. Some chickens are like that. This thread also looks like it is in the wrong forum. I can get an admin to move it if you want

 

[Ridgerunner]

I think you are in the perfect section for an egg laying problem.

The egg-laying process is pretty complicated. To me it is amazing how many get every step correct. Since the rest of your flock is doing great it is not a flockwide problem. You are doing nothing wrong. It is an individual hen problem.

It sounds like this is an occasional problem, not an always one. For whatever reason that hen sometimes does not process the calcium correctly. Strange that it is occasional and not consistent but with living animals about anything can happen.

I think your choices are to keep doing what you are and live with it or get rid of her. I do not know of a permanent fix.

 

[Rock17]

Im sure this was in the site announcement and issues forum last time I saw it

 

[rosemarythyme]

You may need to keep her on a pill regimen during laying season from here on out. Some birds just need a lot more than they intake, like I find that to be an issue with older birds. Since you know daily doses work, try every other day, and if shell quality remains good, decrease it to once every 2 days, and so on. The idea is to find a happy medium that maintains shell quality, while minimizing how much additional calcium she gets.

 

[karenm52]

My Australorp x Rhode Island Red always lays eggs with thin shells. Once or twice a year she starts laying soft shelled ones for days at a time. I was advised to give her calcium tablets for a week. Whenever ever she lays soft eggs I have found this treatment to be very successful (many thanks to whoever recommended it).
I give the girls plain yoghurt once a week, an occasional can of salmon with the bones crushed up, some grated cheese as a real treat and put a little calcium powder on their layer pellets. She eats everything I give her and is in fact like a vacuum cleaner . My 3 other girls all lay good, hard shelled eggs.
Any Idea what the problem might be? Any advice gratefully received

i had this issue after i gave my girls a bag of spinach - eggs w/no shell!! researched and found out the oxalic acid (super high in spinach) sucks the calcium out of their blood stream and leaves them none to use for their shell. they must be eating some veggies somewhere. if you find the source you can google how much oxalic acid is in the veggie. you can also supplement with Vitamin K. i put the small pill in some cream cheese, which they loved. got things back to normal. best

 

[Bonnieboo]

i had this issue after i gave my girls a bag of spinach - eggs w/no shell!! researched and found out the oxalic acid (super high in spinach) sucks the calcium out of their blood stream and leaves them none to use for their shell. they must be eating some veggies somewhere. if you find the source you can google how much oxalic acid is in the veggie. you can also supplement with Vitamin K. i put the small pill in some cream cheese, which they loved. got things back to normal. best

Thanks for your kind suggestion