Pro - Does anyone else's nest boxes get soaked in rain?

[Julia W]

I've noticed that I occasionally get a soft egg or, it appears, one with no shell at all. They are layed in the coop on the roosting bars and fall through, they have never been laid in the nesting box. I can't identify which girl it is but they have a plentiful supply of layers pellets every day, oyster shells, I've put that calcuim powder in their food (can't remember the name of it) and they have the red drops for their water (again, can't remember what it's called) and still it happens. They have greens, a handful of corn each day and meal worms now and again. Not sure where to go from here. Any ideas please?

[Olly]

There's a sticky here about this, and if you search the forum you'll find a few threads about this. It could just be the age of your hens, as they reach the end of their laying career they tend to lay eggs with less 'perfect' shells; or it could be a temporary blip.

[Julia W]

Thanks Olly, I did have a look to see if I could see a thread but couldn't find one at the time. I looked at the 'sticky' and none of this applies since they all have access to oyster shells and I put the calcuim powder in their food now and again and I feed them layers pellets. How long do they usually lay for, my chickens were bought from Omlet in May 2011 so they are 17 months old. Not sure if they are coming to the end of their laying life or not. None of them look under the weather either, all in fine fettle. I have had this problem for quite a while though not a permanent problem. I'm not too worried about it unless it indicates that one of my lovely girls might be unwell.

[Olly]

In fact, if you have had them for 17 months they are around 2 years old now, because they will have been POL (20-24 weeks) when you got them - it's possible they are just running out of steam. There are additives you can give them, Zocal is one I believe, or there is some discussion about egg eating (which is often linked to soft shells) here.

[Julia W]

Hmmm, crafty girls, I think they have eaten the odd egg now and then and I was going to follow a remedy I found on the web, blow the egg and fill it with mustard but couldn't bring myself to be so cruel to them I hate mustard myself and couldn't inflict this on my lovely girls. Sobeit, if they are coming to the end of their egg laying then that's fine, they can retire, I don't want to 'force' them to lay if they are past it. I shall just get some more girls, I only have five at the moment and have an eglu cube and a huge walk in run so there's plenty of room for more. Just hope I can intigrate them, not tried it before so it should be interesting.