Weekly soft egg

[Sara H.]

Hi!
I'm on my second flock of backyard chickens, and this time around I've had the strangest experiences!
I have 14 hens, all 28 weeks old. Every Tuesday morning for three weeks now, I find a soft egg in the poop catcher under the roosting bars. Whoever it is, is very consistent!
Out of my 14, I'm only getting about 10 eggs a day - just a few weeks ago, I was getting 12-13 a day from 15 hens. (A RIR died suddenly one day - no injuries, just dead on the coop floor!)
Any ideas what's going on with this weekly soft egg?
Thanks!

 

[Ecarroll]

Possibly a lack of calcium, you could give them oyster shells or egg shells

 

[Sara H.]

Possibly a lack of calcium, you could give them oyster shells or egg shells

I have oyster shell available, free choice... All the others who are laying have good strong shells.

 

[Ecarroll]

I have oyster shell available, free choice... All the others who are laying have good strong shells.

Hmm, weird. I’m not sure, hopefully someone more knowledgeable than me can help you.

 

[ChicNmom]

If you can figure out which one it is she needs a little more calcium.
Sometimes one just does even though it's available for them to choose to eat.

Or maybe on Sunday give them all a treat like oatmeal or scrambled egg with calcium powder mixed in.

It is funny that it's every Tuesday!!

I had one the maybe once a year I had to give her extra directly in her beak and then she would be fine. Another had a bad shell gland so I did the same.

I have one now that gets extra every week or when I see her shells start to get thin.

 

[Erb Homestead]

We just started having the same soft egg problem. Our hen (about 30 weeks old) is laying them more frequently than once a week like Sara's hen. We don't know exactly when it started happening (within a week) but when we cleaned the coop we found 2 soft eggs behind the roosting bar. And then two days later we find 2 more back there...We wanted to ask ya'll here if you had experienced this and wouldn't ya know it...we found this thread! Their usual diet is chicken scratch and white millet along with being free range and foraging. We add laying pellets once in awhile and have oyster shells for calcium. The other hens that are laying have good hardy and strong shells. One of the hens was recently pecked by our Guinea fowl so it could possibly be caused by stress. She is healed now though so I don't see why it would continue. Please let us know what you think! Thanks!

 

[HollowOfWisps]

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Their usual diet is chicken scratch and white millet along with being free range and foraging. We add laying pellets once in awhile and have oyster shells for calcium.

This is your problem. Feeding solely scratch and millet is like feeding kids solely bread and pasta. They are okay in moderation, but should not be the bulk of their diet.

 

[Sara H.]

Oddly enough, I haven't had a soft shelled egg in about a month! Shortly after I posted, we got some poultry netting up to protect from hawks, and the chickens have been free ranging in their pasture ever since. I guess the hen just needed whatever minerals are available in the pasture!