4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[paintingbird]

I am very interested in the topic of soft eggs. One of our pepperpots (clara) has been laying soft eggs for about two weeks now. They are dropped through the bars of the roost.

 

We have 3 pepperpots and 3 speckleys, all the other birds are laying normally, they all eat the same food and we have put in extra grit, so cannot understand why just one bird is doing this. Healthwise she is fine and shows no signs of malaise. Does anyone know what could be wrong with her.

 

Lettie, Clara, Flo

speckledys - Bertha, Elsie and Maud.

 

many thanks

paintingbird

[quinlan]

Can't help you as to why this happens, but have had a similar thing with one of our girls. We got some limestone flour to add to their food, which made a slight difference, but after a few weeks she seems to be laying daily again and her eggs are fine, so perhaps its just one of those things that comes and goes? I did change their porridge (pellets and warm water with eggshell and limestone flour) to the morning instead of the afternoon so perhaps she's eating more pellets now too, which I believe is good for laying.

[paintingbird]

Thank you chicken eggspert,

 

We will try the egg shells in their food, also keeping them in the run in the mornings to make sure that they eat all their layers pellets. Maybe the weather doesn't suit her.

We will let you know how we get on.

many thanks

painting bird clara Lettie and Flo

speckldeys Bertha, Elsie and Maud.

[sandyhas3chucks]

not enough calcium, or not absobing it.

You can add limestone flour to there food and cod liver oil.

Vit D 3 is needed for absorbtion of calcium & cod liver oil has it.

Or you can use a supplement caled Zolcal D which has it added.

 

Also despite all my best efforts one was persistent until my homeopathic vet gave us a months of Calc C. this apparently kick starts the sytem sytem somehow.

All I can say is that the next day we had our 1st solid shell from her in months & have continued with only the odd blip.

No placebo effect there.

 

I read somewhere that a laying hen uses 30% more calcium per egg than she has spare in her body,, so if thee isn't enough in her diet & or not absorbing...............

[Battylady]

Hello! I have big soft egg issues too, or rather my ex-batt, Donna does She didn't lay at all from when we got her (last Autumn) until about a month ago and then she produced a couple of soft shell eggs that caused her a lot of trouble. My poor little baby Since then, she is regularly producing eggs, every couple of days or so, but every single one soft shelled. Yesterday she had real trouble getting it out again - I was standing there and 'pushing' with her, knowing just how she felt. She is quite naughty about her food, we were told by a friend to feed her on corn (which we did for several months) and she also ate a lot of bits of pieces whilst freeranging. I realised I needed to get her back on layers pellets but she won't eat them - even tried mixing them with the corn but she just picks the corn out! Naughty Donna! I've tried to get her to have oyster shell and crushed egg shell but she's the fussiest girl ever and I'm getting nowhere. I don't mind not having eggs we can eat but I hate to see her having so much trouble pushing them out. I know there's something you can put in the water but where she freeranges she mostly tends to drink out of puddles or the pond. I can't even keep her in the eglu as our 11 week old chick, Rose, is in there and Donna is still very agressive towards her. Being a hen-mummy is never straightforward is it..... xxx

[Hen Watch]

Hi Battylady,

 

Maybe, as an ex-batt, she’s just getting to the end of her egg laying years and going into the “henoupause”. I’ve got 2 year old hybrids and some of them lay softies and are beginning wind-down.

 

Or maybe she just needs some extra calcium. Limestone flour added to the feed plus cod liver oil. Get limestone flour from equestrian supply shops.

 

we were told by a friend to feed her on corn (which we did for several months) and she also ate a lot of bits of pieces whilst freeranging. I realised I needed to get her back on layers pellets but she won't eat them

 

Why was that? Was the corn to stop her laying and give her a break????? What about giving her layers mash instead of pellets. My lot went through a phase of not eating pellets and so I gave them mash (same as pellets but in powdered form - sometimes called layers meal). They loved it. Rather annoyingly though, it is really messy, gets flicked everywhere and I've tried to wean them back onto pellets. But if she is being fussy, perhaps mash is worth trying.

[paintingbird]

Further to my post about Clara and her soft eggs. She seems to have "recovered" from what was upsetting her. Perhaps she didn't like the snow or the cold weather. Now the weather has turned warmer and sunny all 6 chooks are laying really well, we get 5 or 6 a day.

 

Thank you for all of your kind suggestions and help.

 

Lettie Clara and Flo

Speckledys Bertha Maud and Elsie.