Why is one of my chickens laying eggs with a very very soft shell?

Question

The egg yolk and white are more or less intact with an empty "deflated" shell next to it - like it was made of thin plastic?

Thanks for all the insight on calcium - they do get oyster shells mixed with a bit of feed - it does appear to get eaten too!

Plus they are fed on organic, non GM layers pellets - good quality - with a little bit of occasional corn for a treat! Sounds like it might be the chicken itself? Only happened this week but has been 3 times. Have 4 hens so no idea which one(s) has the problem because all appear fine. The other 3 eggs each day have been fine.

Answer 1

You know how you give them grit to eat to help them digest their food? Well see if you can get oyster grit instead. Its made of oyster shell so is rich in calcium and can help avoid this.
You can also feed them snails, as long as you don't use slug pellets in your garden. Young snails are great for chickens; the body is protein and the shell is calcium. The chickens soon learn how to eat them.
Feeding them eggshell is generally avoided, because they can learn to eat their own eggs. If you want to feed the eggshells back to them then crush them up fine and mix in with the feed.

Answer 2

This happens when the diet of the bird laying the eggs is low in calcium..

You can fix this by feeding layers pellets chicken food and supplementing with calcium grit

Answer 3

For laying hens you should be using a feed that is high in calcium, around 3% is the norm compared to aroung 1% for non-layers.

Its not a good idea to add egg-shell to the feed and hens ave been known to turn 'cannibal' and eat their own eggs.

A proper diet can be obtained from your local feedstuffs supplier.

Answer 4

give her egg shells to eat and find a calcium supplements to put in her corn meal. poor sweet hen,
you should read and learn about pets so you can care for them correctly. without calcium she may be having other things wrong with her health that you are not aware of like bone aches and stomach aches and muscle cramps...
I had a Rhoad Island Red hen named Rosey and she was so smart she would do tricks and make us laugh. she liked to get high on pot and then she would climb in my son's book bag. she would eat bugs off the wood pile and run in the house when the cat would sit on the fence to watch her. she laid a big brown egg every morning. we saved her from going to the the SPCA. Someone abused her. my kids are vegetarians because of the relationship they had with her. really. they are smart animals. people should get to know them better than just KFC.
read your labels people because there are machines out there that debone and gut live chickens and you eat the chemicals that are released from a tormented animal. (epinephrine and adrenaline) maybe this is why our kids are having ADD, ADHD and hyperactivity, mental illnesses and anxiety...or at least part of the reason....along with other health issues....

Answer 5

it happens to my budgies and the vet says it needs to get a new diet with more calcium in the water or feed them on egg food and iodine licks u can get them from most pet shops it'll be fine if u do this there is nothing to worry about u will have to get rid of the egg as infection can get it ant it may be deformed

Answer 6

Saying that must have a deficiency of Ca can be the first sight answer, but you should check also antagonisms with other nutrients that matters in the Ca metabolism, such as P.
But, if the problem is with only one of the chickens, it must be probably related to hormones that act in the Ca metabolism or lack of Vit D.

Answer 7

Go to your local beach and dig up some grit, broken sea shells and scatter it in the run. Hopefully she will ingest some and the problem will be sorted.

Answer 8

feed the chicken egg shells

Answer 9

your chickens need more food or somthine.

or
it could be your chickens may have been pisioned by light chiemals same thing happens to egels

Answer 10

She's out of calcium?