Very soft egg

[HomeBirthMama]

Hi! We had 3 Silkie hens and 2 roosters. Two of our hens started laying soft open eggs recently. Just this morning, one hen passed away.
I thought it was a broken egg situation. Our one rooster was mating a hen, and the #2 rooster got into their area of run and knocked the rooster off the hen. We try to keep the #2 rooster separate. But he did this twice.
So we tried all day yesterday to nurse the lethargic hen back to health. Several warm baths, oil up the vent. We even tried to feel if there was a broken egg inside, but we didn't feel any broken egg pieces.
We would like to save the other hen. We would appreciate any help. Thank you.

 

[apryl29]

The soft shell egg may be unrelated to your chicken acting lethargic. I'm not very experienced with what may be causing the lethargy so other more experience people may chime in, but my girls were laying soft shell & shell-less eggs this summer. I made sure they had plenty of oyster shell and it seemed to work itself out. Just before I started getting these unusual eggs we had a predator kill one of our chickens. I had very strange eggs for about a week, then things calmed down. Is it possible that there's an animal or something that is stressing out your birds and causing this? I also had another girl recently lay a soft shell egg in the middle of the yard. After she laid it she seemed to act very strangely like something was wrong, then wandered off. I have read that passing soft shell & shell-less eggs is much harder than passing a fully formed egg, but also that it's not unusual for new layers to lay soft shell eggs in the beginning.
Again, I'm not an expert, but I would think that if the soft shell egg is able to pass through it's unlikely that there is a broken egg inside the chicken. If it's broken when you find it, it doesn't mean that it was laid broken. The chicken could have stepped on it or pecked at it and caused it to open. I would first start by making sure they have access to oyster shell or crushed egg shells for the calcium, you can also crush up a tums and sprinkle it into cottage cheese or yogurt for a quick boost in calcium. You might also offer them some scrambled eggs. The extra protein might help give her the boost she needs to recover. I'd also take a look around your coop and run to see if you notice anything that might indicate a predator has been hanging around.

 

[HomeBirthMama]

Thank you Apryl29.
That's interesting because all three were laying well in the nesting box for months, but recently I found some eggs outside in the run. I think you're right about it not being a broken egg. I'm really thinking it might be the stress of the other rooster harassing the hens. But there could be a neighborhood dog who scared them. It also just got cold recently. Maybe that has added stress. They have oyster shells available to them. The other hen is not acting lethargic yet.
We did feed the hen who died some kefir and yogurt. I will try yogurt with oyster shell for the other hen.

 

[apryl29]

Good luck. I hope it works for you. Is she eating well otherwise? I know mine love eggs. I had one who was hurt and had her confined. I gave her mash w/ scrambled egg mixed in and she actually picked through the mash and ate only the eggs.

 

[HomeBirthMama]

Thank you. I will try to update you if anything new happens. She seems to still be eating. She is out with the rooster and the other hen. If she starts looking bad, I will probably bring her in. Hopefully, she sorts herself out.

 

[junebuggena]

What are you feeding?

 

[HomeBirthMama]

We feed Nature's Best Organic Egg Layer Pellets, plus oyster shells, and grit. They also have a large run with grass, chickweed, etc.

 

[junebuggena]

How old are your hens?

 

[Pegasusi]

I experienced the same thing about 2 weeks ago for several days! The first one I discovered was early on a Monday morning. My husband travels during the week and leaves out about 5 am on Mondays. That night when he called, I told him I had discovered an unbroken shelless egg encased in a thick membrane in the run area before daybreak and before Mrs Winners had ventured out for the day (currently only have one chicken as explained in my introduction). He told me that when he was packing his car, he heard some strange screeching noises in the woods near the coop and went to check on Mrs Winners. He said the coop was quiet and secure and the noises stopped as he approached the woods. Evidently some critter had literally scared the egg out of Mrs Winners. The fact that she descended out of her roost in the elevated "house" to the enclosed and roofed run leads me to believe the critter was probably on the roof above her roost. Chickens are night blind so to leave the nightly roost shows extreme fear. This went on for 3 days.....full sized shelless eggs found in the run. The last shelless egg was found under her roost and only about the size of a large olive. Within 2 days she was back to her normal laying schedule. It was here at BYC, I learned that predators terrorizing and interrupting their sleep can cause shelless eggs. This site is amazing!

 

[HomeBirthMama]

How old are your hens?

My hens are 7 months old.