Thin shelled/soft shelled eggs.

[Juliebanning]

I am a new chicken mama and I have 8 5 month old pullets of various breeds I have had so many problems since they started laying I'm at my wits end I don't know what to do. Problem #1 I have 1 that has layed at least a dozen soft eggs mostly at night some while walking around outside. I took her to an avian vet and she was on antibiotics and tums for 2 weeks did get better for about 2 weeks and now has another soft egg. #2 I have had 1 chicken prolapse with her first and second egg and had to give her medication to shut her down for awhile. #3 I had yet another chicken lay soft shelled eggs twice gave her tums and she did well for about 2 weeks and now she has 2 soft eggs one right after the other on the same day as the first. #4 another chicken layed a soft egg for her first egg no eggs since been about 4 days ago. #5 another chicken layed a normal egg for her first then about a week later layed 2 soft eggs overnight. Over half of my girls have had problems they have been eating Dumor feed at the appropriate life stage and they have been getting no snacks beyond a handful of scratch to get them in the coop at night and whatever they eat free ranging. They have oyster shell available at all times and mixed in their feed. I just purchased a different brand of feed and I'm mixing that in to transition them to Nutrena naturewise layer to see if they do better. Has anyone else experienced similar issues? What did you do or recommend doing to resolve the issue? I am willing to do whatever these are my babies.

 

[hollys chooks]

Young pullets often lay a soft egg or two as they get the hang of laying, but yours sounds like a different problem. What is their poo like? Are they doing more watery ones than usual? I've had problems with soft egg shells over a length of time and have a theory it was something they were eating free ranging. If no one comes up with a better idea perhaps try keeping them confined so you know what they are eating. It is very frustrating when the answer isn't obvious.

 

[Juliebanning]

The ones that are laying the soft eggs do seem to have watery poops I wouldn't call it diarrhea and not every time. Half the time they appear normal

 

[hollys chooks]

That is similar to what I've found. My theory on a plant being the culprit is just my own idea, I haven't found any information on it and I can't experiment with plants to test my theory (well I could but that would continue the problem) but since I fence off where my chooks run so they don't get to a lot of different plants in my yard I've had less problems.

 

[Juliebanning]

I'll have to pay more attention to the plants they are eating

 

[RoosterDon]

We started 13 months ago with 5 young hens and a rooster that we bough, then started hatching. We now have 11 hen, 3-4 not laying yet. Most all started laying solid eggs, but we have had a few hens start with laying what looked like almost shell less eggs. But whichever one it was corrected it in time. (not long, she laid like 3 this way before they shelled up). We have a new layer who is laying soft eggs that break almost to the touch.

I will tell you what we feed them, and I think the treats are important. Like you we have calcium shells mixed in with feed in a separate feed box for those that need and want it. We also throw out lots of food scraps including their own eggs shells (they love them). We also feed them raw hamburger meat several times a week, more for the protein (maybe it has contributed to more solid eggs overall (except the new layers). When we started letting the free range they would always go to the neighbors yard to eat bird seed, so I keep a bad of wild bird seen and throw that out in their pen daily. So they really eat quite a bit of bird seed. And we do dried mealworms too. I know it adds to the expense but it is what we like to do. They get plenty of free range scratching several times a week for an hour or two before roost time. On the weekends we let them out all afternoon, so they get their bugs, greens, grass, worms, and whatever else they dig up.

I am not saying anything one thing we are doing is working, but that all in all is what we feed them. They do not like pellet feed, so they have feeders full off feed scratch. I will also throw that out in their pen as well with the bird seed. They love peaches, and corn with the husks are 4 for a dollar at the grocery store, and they love eating these too.

We are in Texas so our climate is pretty hot all in all. And our pen, fenced in area is pretty large, so they have room to move and roam and scratch, although they destroyed all the grass within the first month. But the dirt baths are very important for them and they love doing the dirt bath.

Good luck with your eggs. Hopefully this will correct itself. Do you have a feed store where you can talk to people there? They have helped us a lot.