My chicken as laid an egg without a shell. Why?

Answer 1

Lacking calcium, very important addition to their diet. Are you feed them crushed oyster shells? If not, pick some up right away.

Answer 2

A laying hen needs Oyster shells or calcium in their diets when they are laying. If she didn't get enough, it causes weakened shells etc....although I have never heard of one without a shell completely....that is pretty cool....but you need to give her a layer feed and some oyster shell....scratch feed as well will help her with the nutritional stuff....Chickens also need green food. Table scraps are fine, like old lettuce, fruit etc. They eat just about anything. DON'T give her chicken egg shells though or eggs, scrambled or otherwise....if you start that behavior, soon she may start to eat eggs in the henhouse and you cannot break that behavior once it starts....then all you can do is eat her, or give her away....or separate her, but she will eat her own eggs then as well.

Answer 3

she hasnt got enough grit in her diet , go to a pet , farmer shop , e.g country wide store , get some grit to mix with their food , its what helps form the shell of the egg , chickens can be fine without this for months then all of a sudden they need it , lay age etc . couple of days she will be sorted and im guessing the others need it too . good luck
thats proper chicken grit , not any sort of grit ...

Answer 4

First i would say that she needs mixed grit (from farm feed shop) the grit helps with her eating as she must have grit in her "crop". sack in her throat to grind food. This can be felt at the front of her chest.
The shell in the mix is absorbed and reapears as her own egg shell.. you can feed her back her own shell but make sure it is well broken or she may start breaking her own eggs.

She may have done this already and you only found the inside. lots of pin pong balls in her nest box will stop this as she will soon give up trying to break the balls, thinking they are eggs

Answer 5

What are you feeding her? Are you feeding a good laying mash? You should be. She is missing out on important vitamins and minerals. Probably low on calcium resulting in no shell.Some feed their chickens broke up egg shells and others don't as it can cause them to eat their own but not possible if their beaks are cut. It is in the feeding of your chickens that you are experiencing this problem.

Answer 6

Hens need two sorts of grit - insoluble grit, which they store in their gizzards to grind up their food (because unlike us they don't have teeth) and soluble grit containing a lot of calcium which they turn into eggshells. You can buy this as 'oyster shell grit' from agricultural merchants, pet shops, etc. Or if you live near the sea you could scoop up buckets of the stuff from the beach. If you do this you'll get plenty of insoluble grit (sand) mixed in with it. Clipping hens' beaks (as recommended in one of the other answers) is cruel but necessary if large numbers of hens are kept in a confined space (which is also cruel).

Answer 7

It sometimes happens to a young bird, or after an injury or excitement, before the egg shell has had time to develop properly.

Answer 8

This is an accident of the hen's reproductive system and is not necessarily an indication of any problem. The membrane was placed on the yold and white, but it somehow slipped past the "shell mechanism" and the shell wasn't deposited.

Answer 9

I am guessing this is a young chicken, who has just started to lay. This is fairly common, and is normally not indicative of any long term problem, it probably won't happen again.

Answer 10

Maybe it's lacking something in its diet or just a wierd occurance. Saves getting egg shells in your pan though!