Young hen laying soft shelled eggs

[capow21]

I have nine hens and a rooster that are about five months old. Two weeks ago when I went to clean the coop I found a very soft small empty egg shell. Looked more like a brown sack, not hard like a shell at all. No yolk part was there (I don't know if there isn't one at all or if the chickens are eating it). She is laying it early in the morning right on the floor of the coop where they sleep. I don't know why, but all ten of them huddle together on the floor in a corner to sleep every night. They only roost during the day.

Anyway, I was gone for a week and while I was gone my mother in-law found one nice medium-sized egg. Now, for the past week that I have been back, I've found four more of the soft-shelled eggs just like before and one really small good egg yesterday morning. So, I'm guessing two hens have started laying now, except the one seems to be only laying the sack-like shells.

They have had free access to oyster shell for three-four weeks now, I started to add apple cider vinegar in their water for the past three days, they're on an all-purpose poultry crumble feed. There's only about 1/3 of the bag left, so I'm going to see if our feed store has a good layer pellet feed now that they're starting to lay. I let them out to free-range at least 2-3 hours a day. They get garden and kitchen scraps that aren't moldy or gross. And now that I have had two good eggs I'm going to start to feed them their shells back. So, I don't think it's a calcium deficiency. I'm also not sure which hen it is. I know one of the two that are now laying is a RIR, but I'm not 100% sure it's her. They all seem happy and healthy, except the RIR that I believe is laying limps on her left leg a little. I checked it out and there's nothing visibly wrong with the foot/leg. Other than that she seems happy and eats and everything.

Could this be an infection? Any over the counter treatments to try? I don't think we have a poultry vet around here. Could it be a nutrient or vitamin deficiency? Still just young? Wait to see if the apple cider vinegar will help? Any suggestions appreciated.

 

[ChicKat]

5-months is really early starters...it will/may take your pullets a little while to get all the egg machinery tuned to work perfectly.

It sounds like you are doing everything just as you should. Using calcium in their feed may be very helpful to your hens. I get a vitamin D3-pill and crush it up, mix with a little feed and then maybe some yougurt, or the insides of one of those shell-less eggs which would boost the protein. Feed this (somewhat gooey) mixture to the hens. D3 will help them with shell production. to that mixture, I would also add the shells from their eggs that I pulverized in the blender.

Basically, I think it is just a timing thing..... As they grow older they will have better shells.