Thin-shelled, Shell-less Eggs after Dark ...

[CalBickieMomma]

Hello glorious chicken people!

I have a RIR hen (1.5 years old) who has been laying thin-shelled (and at least one shell-less) eggs for a few weeks to a month now. At first I thought maybe she was getting ready to molt and maybe that was causing extra stress, but she still hasn’t molted and as far as I can tell, she‘s been acting her usual, bratty self (just looks a little ragged because of her old feathers). Her RIR sister also hasn’t molted yet, but haven’t seen any egg problems in her (except looks like she’s finally slowed down for the winter).

Another thing is the girl I’m concerned about has been laying or trying to lay late in the afternoon/at night (the shell-less egg I found under her on the coop floor - so she laid it from the roost, and tonight she was in a nesting box with a squished soft egg under her).

I supply oyster shell with their crushed egg shells mixed in (they get All Flock and scratch, plus veggie and fruit table scraps from time to time). I was going to try to hand-feed her some crushed egg shells tomorrow, in case she’s not helping herself to the calcium supply for some reason.

I did put ACV in their water a week ago (1 tbsp per gallon) but haven’t re-dosed their water supply yet (waiting on my ACV order to arrive), and dusted their All Flock with food grade DE to help with worms (this might be the problem with her, so maybe I just need to wait for that to kick in).

OR maybe it’s just the cooler weather and shorter days and for some reason it‘s bothering her this year (NOTE: I live in California and it rarely drops below 30 degrees at night).

Anyhoo, anyone else ever have this issue? Again, not super concerned since she isn’t acting lethargic or sick or anything like that.

Thanks for any feedback!

 

[WindingRoad]

Hello glorious chicken people!

I have a RIR hen (1.5 years old) who has been laying thin-shelled (and at least one shell-less) eggs for a few weeks to a month now. At first I thought maybe she was getting ready to molt and maybe that was causing extra stress, but she still hasn’t molted and as far as I can tell, she‘s been acting her usual, bratty self (just looks a little ragged because of her old feathers). Her RIR sister also hasn’t molted yet, but haven’t seen any egg problems in her (except looks like she’s finally slowed down for the winter).

Another thing is the girl I’m concerned about has been laying or trying to lay late in the afternoon/at night (the shell-less egg I found under her on the coop floor - so she laid it from the roost, and tonight she was in a nesting box with a squished soft egg under her).

I supply oyster shell with their crushed egg shells mixed in (they get All Flock and scratch, plus veggie and fruit table scraps from time to time). I was going to try to hand-feed her some crushed egg shells tomorrow, in case she’s not helping herself to the calcium supply for some reason.

I did put ACV in their water a week ago (1 tbsp per gallon) but haven’t re-dosed their water supply yet (waiting on my ACV order to arrive), and dusted their All Flock with food grade DE to help with worms (this might be the problem with her, so maybe I just need to wait for that to kick in).

OR maybe it’s just the cooler weather and shorter days and for some reason it‘s bothering her this year (NOTE: I live in California and it rarely drops below 30 degrees at night).

Anyhoo, anyone else ever have this issue? Again, not super concerned since she isn’t acting lethargic or sick or anything like that.

Thanks for any feedback!

Temp is not related to egg laying Daylight is.

 

[CalBickieMomma]

Temp is not related to egg laying Daylight is.

I didn’t think the temperature would make much of a difference, but thought I’d throw it out there as a possible stressor, just in case anyone did notice it having an effect on their chicken . Thanks for cross it off the list, though.

 

[Hazbin]

greetings,
i don't post very often, but we learned something new this year. we have had layers for ~10 years now. got my coop designs (used 2) from this website to create our coop. we are on our 3rd batch of hens (currently have 5, did have more, but 'stuff' happens), current flock are 1.5 years old. we are in CT. first, temperature is only important for keeping the water from freezing, we have a heater for the water to cover that issue. second, light is critical. you need a minimum of 12 hours (their timer turns on the light in the coop at 5 am), it's still dark in the run, but that doesn't seem to be an issue . third, you need a lot more calcium. what we learned about this year was grubblies (not cheap but check out their website). we have been using grubblies for ~6 weeks now. eggs are harder and the hen's feathers (after molting) are just amazingly colorful. hens just love these as snacks (they get them in the am and before we put them away for the night) and if you believe the grubblies website, the natural calcium is 50x that of mealworms. good luck.

 

[CalBickieMomma]

greetings,
i don't post very often, but we learned something new this year. we have had layers for ~10 years now. got my coop designs (used 2) from this website to create our coop. we are on our 3rd batch of hens (currently have 5, did have more, but 'stuff' happens), current flock are 1.5 years old. we are in CT. first, temperature is only important for keeping the water from freezing, we have a heater for the water to cover that issue. second, light is critical. you need a minimum of 12 hours (their timer turns on the light in the coop at 5 am), it's still dark in the run, but that doesn't seem to be an issue . third, you need a lot more calcium. what we learned about this year was grubblies (not cheap but check out their website). we have been using grubblies for ~6 weeks now. eggs are harder and the hen's feathers (after molting) are just amazingly colorful. hens just love these as snacks (they get them in the am and before we put them away for the night) and if you believe the grubblies website, the natural calcium is 50x that of mealworms. good luck.

Thanks for the tip! Yup. I’ve seen lots of ads for Grubblies (when you post a ton of chicken stuff on Facebook, how could their ads not find me? ).
I‘ll have to check it out and figure out how to keep my roos from eating it (I heard too much calcium can cause kidney issues in the boys).

 

[nuthatched]

Just the winter break due to shorter daylight hours, they'll start up in a few weeks.
However, I would discontinue use of the DE, it doesn't do much for worms and can cause internal bleeding.

 

[CalBickieMomma]

Just the winter break due to shorter daylight hours, they'll start up in a few weeks.
However, I would discontinue use of the DE, it doesn't do much for worms and can cause internal bleeding.

Thank you ! I just gave them the DE, so I can hold back on it from now on - it was recommended by the manager of a local Tractor Supply. I would like to get rid of the worms, but don’t want to cause more harm than good. What is your opinion on Safeguard for worming? I’ve been told the liquid goat variety can be added to water and that there is no risk for overdosing.

 

[aart]

it doesn't do much for worms...
....and can cause internal bleeding.

True....
..... never heard the bleeding thing.

 

[nuthatched]

True....
..... never heard the bleeding thing.

De works on bugs since it's actually very sharp on the microscopic scale, it cuts them so they dry out and die. the inside of a chicken is not dry, so the bugs don't dry out. but it can "sand " the digestion tract to cause bleeding, not bad bleeding unless you give them a lot of de.

 

[aart]

De works on bugs since it's actually very sharp on the microscopic scale, it cuts them so they dry out and die. the inside of a chicken is not dry, so the bugs don't dry out. but it can "sand " the digestion tract to cause bleeding, not bad bleeding unless you give them a lot of de.

Eh......don't think that's really possible, too fine any sharp edges.
I've put a lot of DE into grain mite infested feed and not seen any bloody poops.
Have there been any quantifiable studies, that you can link, to prove your theory?