Hi there,
There are many causes of soft shelled eggs. Lack of calcium is a possibility, as is illness or a defective shell gland. New layers tend to throw out a soft shell occasionally as they master the art of egg-laying. Older hens will also tend to lay soft shelled eggs as they approach the end of their egg laying life - this may well be the case with your girl as she gets on in years.
The best advice I can offer is to make sure you feed a good quality layers pellet and provide additional calcium on the side. Try and steer clear of too many treats (even vegetables for a while) so that your hen can only eat pellets, thereby ensuring she gets adequate calcium into her diet. If needs be you can also buy calcium powders and liquids to add to their feed and water. Some hens simply need that extra support whereas others manage on their feed alone. It may help, it may not. But I agree, if this is happening often it is going to be a problem.
Regarding the egg-eating ....It's a very hard habit to break, as chickens will play "follow the leader."
Put some fake eggs into the nest boxes, as it may discourage them from pecking at the real eggs.
Remove the soft shelled eggs as soon as you see them, as well as any egg-soaked bedding.
It might well be that you need to remove the 'leader' (the girl who lays the soft shelled eggs) from your flock - either pen her up in her own little area and then let her out each day to be with the others
after she has laid (thereby ensuring the others can't eat her eggs!), or re-home her. Hopefully it won't come to that though
Good luck!
- Krista
