Thought it was a worm. . .

[LaFleche]

You should up her calcium intake to prevent further soft-shelled eggs.

 

[SheaLoner]

They are on a layer feed and free choice oyster shell. Problem with free choice is some of them just wont eat it.

 

[Ascholten]

Give her some McDonalds' she'll be #$$tting within a few minutes after eating that if it works the same for birds as people...

Id put more calcium into her diet, maybe some free grit on the side for her to eat if she needs it, it's not very expensive at all and the gravel also helps in the gizzard as well for grinding stuff up.

If you don't have gloves, rubbers work too, or plastic bags, or balloons, there are plenty of hand / finger coverings you can use in a pinch, or use your toe... hey it's not the finger

If you do use a prophylactic, get the politician sized ones, they are tiny enough to fit snugly on your finger w/o having to worry about falling off.

Aaron

Edit: Are you sure they are not eating the grit, or you just are not seeing them eat a lot of it, they won't gobble it down like they will the daily meal. On that, if you must, throw some feed pellets into water, just a little, you want to make a paste out of it, not a runny soup, when it's like soft squishy formable dough, throw some grit into that and squeeze / blend it into the feed dough mixture. Then make little balls out of it and feed them that. Maybe can even put some sort of snacky stuff in that ball to make it even more appetizing. They will tear at it and gobble it right down, taking the grit right with it, viola. If it's not forming balls good or a bit crumbly then just put it into a bowl like oat meal, they will still gobble it down and take the grit with it.

A

 

[SheaLoner]

Give her some McDonalds' she'll be #$$tting within a few minutes after eating that if it works the same for birds as people...

Id put more calcium into her diet, maybe some free grit on the side for her to eat if she needs it, it's not very expensive at all and the gravel also helps in the gizzard as well for grinding stuff up.

If you don't have gloves, rubbers work too, or plastic bags, or balloons, there are plenty of hand / finger coverings you can use in a pinch, or use your toe... hey it's not the finger

If you do use a prophylactic, get the politician sized ones, they are tiny enough to fit snugly on your finger w/o having to worry about falling off.

Aaron

Edit: Are you sure they are not eating the grit, or you just are not seeing them eat a lot of it, they won't gobble it down like they will the daily meal. On that, if you must, throw some feed pellets into water, just a little, you want to make a paste out of it, not a runny soup, when it's like soft squishy formable dough, throw some grit into that and squeeze / blend it into the feed dough mixture. Then make little balls out of it and feed them that. Maybe can even put some sort of snacky stuff in that ball to make it even more appetizing. They will tear at it and gobble it right down, taking the grit right with it, viola. If it's not forming balls good or a bit crumbly then just put it into a bowl like oat meal, they will still gobble it down and take the grit with it.

A

Most of them will eat it but this hen and one other will turn their beak up at it. Even when mixed in with some soaked scratch. I'll just have to start getting sneakier.

 

[LaFleche]

You can buy calcium carbonate powder or crumbles to mix with the feed , it is quite cheap and helps a lot.

Most of them will eat it but this hen and one other will turn their beak up at it. Even when mixed in with some soaked scratch. I'll just have to start getting sneakier.

 

[Eggcessive]

We always saved all of our egg shells, crushed them, and fed them back to the chickens. They seem to prefer those, but we always had crushed oyster shell as well. Some chickens can either not process the calcium, or she may have a reproductive issue that has affected her shell gland part of the oviduct. That could be an injury, an infection, or tumor.