Chicken laying thin (or no) shell eggs

[genusCastor]

Anyone have ideas for a chicken laying eggs with very thin shells? A constant supply of oyster shell (so-called, not really "oyster shell" anymore) is in with the feed. I use pellet feed. Started giving a supplemental calcium (recycled egg shells & crushed TUMS tablets) mixed in with crumbled feed. This seems to be an issue that just showed up, so wondering if it could be the feed? Would crumble feed be better than pellet? Maybe a bad bag of oyster shell? Or sumptin' else?

TIA

- djb

 

[OzarkMike]

I have just the opposite problem with thick shelled eggs. I raise chickens for both egg and meat, and the eggs are hard for chicks to break open during hatching. I believe thick shells occur with young hens less than one year old, and due to the fact that my soil is dolomitic (great source of calcium). So I don't supplement calcium or phosphorus in their feed.

When you feed crumble or pellet feed, you really don't need grit or oyster shell, but it won't hurt to offer it to them. But when I feed scratch grain, they need a good bit of grit to grind the seed in their crops. I've been told that oyster shell helps thicken the shells, but I don't see any difference between oyster shell or just plain old granite grit. I've only had one chicken in the past 10 years that laid thin shells, and after a couple months she started laying normal eggs. I'm not sure why, but I think it's a genetic issue. How many chickens do you have, and is it just one chicken giving you problems?

 

[bunyip]

SWMBO works in this field and told me there are so many factors that can cause this.
Old Hens
Hens coming into or going out of the laying cycle.
Hot weather
Overweight birds
Digestion of food which can also be related to hot weather
Lack of protein in food (not related to grit)
If any of these are relevant Google remedies.
Commercial egg farms have misters for hot days to keep the temp down in the barns and she also mention too much feed can produce too many eggs in a short cycle so egg #1 has a shell but egg #2 hasn't had time to form as it is too close behind.
There are many other reasons but these are the basics to address.

 

[genusCastor]

SWMBO works in this field and told me there are so many factors that can cause this.
Old Hens
Hens coming into or going out of the laying cycle.
Hot weather
Overweight birds
Digestion of food which can also be related to hot weather
Lack of protein in food (not related to grit)
If any of these are relevant Google remedies.
Commercial egg farms have misters for hot days to keep the temp down in the barns and she also mention too much feed can produce too many eggs in a short cycle so egg #1 has a shell but egg #2 hasn't had time to form as it is too close behind.
There are many other reasons but these are the basics to address.

My hens are not free range, although they do have a sizable run (I hate stepping in chicken/duck/goose crap :confused2: ). Of the list above, perhaps it could be digestive or protein related. This prollem started with a few younger hens and one older hen, so I don't think it's age related. Certainly not the heat, it's been unusually cold here. I only have the older hen now, and five young Rhode Island Red pullets; I gave the other hens away because I thought the prollem could have been inbreeding - Those other hens were mix breeds hatched in an incubator, with eggs from a friend, and I wondered if they may have been bred too close(?) I've always had Rhode Island Reds before, and never saw this issue until I raised the hatched mixed breeds. But this week the old [Rhode Island] hen layed a couple thin shelled eggs so I guess it was not just the mixed bred hens...

- djb

 

[2LaneCruzer]

This:

https://www.fresheggsdaily.com/2014/04/soft-shelled-or-rubber-eggs-causes-and.html

 

[tomplum]

We leave the both egg shell and oyster shell out for the girls. Bake the egg shells @ 250 for 20 minutes and pulse them in the blender to break them up to a small flake size. It seems that the hens know what they need diet wise. That seems to give a more consistent shell.

 

[kcflhrc]

I wouldn't put anything in the feed. Put the Oyster Shell in a separate container and calcium in a separate container. Put some pro-biotic in the water. Our girls absolutely hate the pellet feed, we have always used the crumbles.

 

[nybirdman]

Are you feeding they layer mash.Makes a big difference than regular feed.As soon as I stop the layer the eggs become thin shelled.I don't use oyster shells or any other supplement.My birds are pheasant but it shouldn't make any difference.

 

[genusCastor]

Lots of good stuff here, thanks. I do use a layer mix feed. The old hen eats the feed and leaves the recycled egg shells, which I thought was odd. I'll take the calcium supplements out of the feed and put in a separate container. The link above has some interesting ideas - some of the scraps we give them may be affecting shells. They routinely get greens, but we'll be more selective what scraps they get.

- djb

 

[kcflhrc]

Give them some plain yogurt also, they like it and is good for them. Just the plain though, not vanilla, plain. Did I say plain, yes I did.

 

[OzarkMike]

I don't think their shell problem is breed specific or caused by inbreeding, as I've allowed inbreeding of mixed breeds to the same rooster for the past 10 years and basically have has no issues. When I had an instance of thin shells eggs, I never actually observed which hen was laying the bad egg. They are kind of secretive with their laying, but I suspected since I had 10 hens and always only had one bad egg, it was isolated to just one of my hens. Early on, I lost two young hens. One to respiratory (White Rock) and the other to enteroteric disease (RI Red). I isolated them from the main flock, and the rest of the flock didn't get sick. It's pretty easy to identify a sick bird early on because they start getting picked on long before you notice a health issue. Plus sick birds don't lay eggs.

I wouldn't go to extremes trying to fix the problem, because chickens are either hardy or they die. Not worth paying for a vet visit. I would try feeding a high quality layer crumble for a while. Change out their nesting material with some fresh straw, and give them fresh water every day. Try this for a while and let nature take it's course.

 

[EddieWalker]

I free range mine, along with two feeders full of Fancy Scratch and a pile of Egg Ration dumped on the floor. I get about 2 dozen eggs per day, and lately there has been one egg that I seem to always put my thumb through. It's supper soft and thin. I'm trying to figure out who it is, but since all the other eggs are perfect, I don't think it's a feed issue. I'm thinking it's an older bird, or maybe one that's sick.

 

[genusCastor]

Well, the old hen started laying good eggs again, I don't really think because of any changes I made. All I changed was placing the calcium supply in its own feeder (not in with the chicken feed). She may have been a little stressed, as her laying a couple bum eggs was around the time I moved the five pullets into the coup with her.

I still dunno what the issue was with the other mix-breed hens I got rid of, a couple of them were laying thin shelled eggs. But the guy I gave them to said they're laying fine at his place. I suppose it's possible the hens were not getting the calcium from the feed, and would have gotten it if there was an external feeder like there is now...

- djb