Weak or shell-less eggs

[councilwoods]

We have one hen out of our 15 hens that is laying shell-less and/or weak eggs.

She has always done this. I believe it is the way she is because they have access to plenty of calcium, etc and none of the others do that.

My problem is I can't figure out which one is laying it. It is consistent just one egg out of the all of them. So I believe it is just one of the hens not a couple of them. I need to find out because they are starting to eat it and I'm afraid it will lead to them eating eggs.

Any suggestions? Do I have to separate them one by one? I don't want to mess with the pecking order and I am afraid if I start separating them we will have problems. Ideas? Suggestions?

 

[lazy gardener]

How often does it happen? You could put trap nest doors on your boxes, and spend a weekend figuring it out. Or you could hang out in the coop, and check who's in the nest, and grab eggs just as soon as they are laid. I narrowed my (same situation) down to one girl I suspected, and the next time she went in the coop, I kicked everyone else out. Bingo, I found the culprit. But, if i keep high protein feed and lots of calcium on the ground, her eggs are ok. When you figure out who it is, mark her somehow: trim a wing, or her tail, fingernail polish, zip tie leg band...

 

[councilwoods]

Thank you for the reply! I pretty much figured out that I am going to have to just hang around the coop and catch her at it like you said. What we usually do is keep her eggs for ourselves and along with any other smaller eggs and sell the others. It was OK when they were weak shells but the shell-less is a problem. Since I posted this I haven't found another one. Crossing my fingers it was just a fluke thing!