Solitary chicken - need advice

[auntielizzie]

Has anyone else ever had this problem before? My best layer Bertha, has been having a bit of a moult (but not a major moult) and has been a bit "iffy" in the egg department recently. She is still laying every day, but a lot of the time the eggs are soft shelled and either break (or are broken into by four eager little beaks) or get eaten Over the last three weeks there have been a few days where she has actually laid two soft eggs a day.

 

This morning when I went to let the girls out at about 7.30, she had laid a soft egg in the house (not in the nest box). The shell had been opened and the egg was spilt out. Then when I went to shut them up after work at about 5 pm this evening, she had literally just laid another softie, which was still warm.

 

I have just wormed them all last week, partly because I hadn't wormed them since the summer, and partly because they have all had some sort of moult and what with the change in daylight hours and the weather, none of them are laying particularly well.

 

Bertha is about 18 months old. Is this common?

[Chickabee]

My only thought is that it could be hormonal. That's just a guess. You could try giving her a bit more protein. Like to see what others think

[Sandychick]

I think she is probably just busy growing back her moulted feathers - their eggs do tend to suffer then especially at this time of year with so little daylight. As long as she seems happy and healthy, I would just wait until she has grown back all her feathers, and hopefully she will be back to doing eggs with shells again soon

[Chickabee]

Very interesting article in my magazine this month. Think it applies to your girlie