thin shelled eggs

[stellarules]

Help, my Americauna has been laying shelless/thin shelled for about a week or so. None of the others are doing this. She is my only Americauna. They free range all day but always have acess to a good layers mash and I recently started oyster shell. What else can I do?

 

[Campine Lover]

You are right to give her oyster shells. Those may help. They make the egg shells from calcium, so you may want to give her some sort of calcium. How old is she? Sometimes they lay like that when they get old. good luck!

 

[ziggywiggy]

I very recently had the same problem with one hen. I decided to cull her and when I butchered her I found two cysts in her abdomen. I was not looking for them so I don't know exactly where in the abdomen they were and I'm not even sure that was causing the problem but, it seems too much of a coincidence not to have been the problem. The cysts were about the size of a marble with clear fluid. I tried posting but received no input.
Soft shells can be caused by factors other than a lack of calcium and if it is just one chicken in your flock with the soft shells, I would assume it is something else.
I wish there were more I could offer. Hopefully, someone more knowledgable than I am will respond.

 

[teach1rusl]

How long has she been laying??? Her eggs were always good quality before???

Besides oyster shell (which isn't an automatic miracle cure...it takes a little time to absorb nutrients), you can also give her crushed up egg shells from your other hens, yogurt, etc....anything high in calcium. I'm not familiar with layer mash...is it formulated specifically for layers??? High calcium levels?? I might contain her for a few days so that she can only eat things high in calcium, and see if things improve. I think they all get a glitch from time to time; I wouldn't worry yet, but if she's still doing it a week from now (after you've tried a few things), then I'd suspect something else.

 

[ziggywiggy]

Quote:
The question I would ask is what else? Mine was laying fine and for about a month started laying soft shelled or no shelled eggs and it was just one hen out of 16 doing it.