Weird egg-laying (soft shell, laying from roost) from new hen

[Pekin fan]

Hello from the UK. I've recently got three new pullets. Two are laying fine, but one of them has, since we got them a month ago, been displaying very strange egg-laying behaviour. Every day she makes egg-laying noises, like her coop mates, she goes in the nest box, sits for a couple of hours but lays nothing. Then when I let them out in the morning, there's an egg under her perch which has dropped out of her in the night. Not only that but it is soft shelled. The hens have access to oyster shell (but I've never seen any of them eat it). They are free range. For a couple of weeks I've been feeding them mineral boost with ground up oyster shell which I mix in with their mash. They love it and she's been eating loads of it but it was made no difference to her laying or the strength of her shells. What is going on?! And what do you recommend I do?! Thanks in advance

 

[Dottie the Chicken]

What kind of layer feed do they get?

 

[Pekin fan]

What kind of layer feed do they get?

Sorry, forgot to mention that. They are on normal layer's pellets. Plus mash with mineral boost. All the others (five hens) are laying jut fine. It's just her. It is something specific to her I think

 

[Dottie the Chicken]

Huh, don't know if protein would have anything to do with it, but what percent protein is the feed?

 

[Pekin fan]

It's high enough as all the other hens are laying just fine. It's just standard layers pellets which are nutritionally balanced to give a laying bird all she needs. I am sure it is nothing to do with the food.

 

[Pekin fan]

Another thing is that she is bottom of the pecking order, but is accepted fine and not bullied mercilessly.

 

[aart]

Could be a glitchy shell gland, could be stress.
Soft shell eggs are hard to move down the pike...
....why she sits in nest and doesn't produce but pops it out later.
You might separate her to provide calcium supplement.
@rosemarythyme has a good regime to do that.

 

[rosemarythyme]

You might separate her to provide calcium supplement.
@rosemarythyme has a good regime to do that.

What I do is mix in oyster shell powder with a small amount of wet or fermented feed, then isolate the bird in question until they eat it but it sounds like this bird is already getting supplemented oyster shell. You'd know if that worked, as you should see results in 1-2 weeks from that.

At this point it's sounding like a glitch in this particular bird's reproductive system somewhere. Has she ever laid an egg with a hard shell?

 

[Pekin fan]

What I do is mix in oyster shell powder with a small amount of wet or fermented feed, then isolate the bird in question until they eat it but it sounds like this bird is already getting supplemented oyster shell. You'd know if that worked, as you should see results in 1-2 weeks from that.

At this point it's sounding like a glitch in this particular bird's reproductive system somewhere. Has she ever laid an egg with a hard shell?

Hi Rosemary - thanks for the advice. No, she has never laid a normal egg in the 6 weeks she has been with us. We had one egg that was slightly harder than her normal, daily squidgy ones (but still not as hard as a normal egg).

The mineral boost I have been giving is powdered oyster shell with other supplements, and I mix it in with mash and water to make a moist feed. She loves it and eats loads, but it has made no difference to her egg laying.

This morning there was no squidgy egg lying in the poopy straw under her roost, so something has changed. I'll see what happens when she sits in the nest box!

 

[Pekin fan]

I stupidly locked up the nest boxes after all the laying hens had laid yesterday at noon, as I have a broody hen and I wanted to stop her accessing the nest boxes. I forgot about this hen who hadn't laid her soft-shelled egg yet (she usually drops it from her perch over night). In the afternoon the kids found the other hens pecking at her soggy-shelled egg in the middle of the garden. I'm hoping she will lay in the nest boxes today, but I still don't know what to do about the soft shells. Can you do anything about a defective shell gland?