just got a soft / broken egg: should i worry?

[TPeers]

Bramble that is facinating. Thank you for a heroic typing session! I thought I had picked up a fair amount of information over the last few years but wow!

[bluemoon]

Our three Rhodies all came into lay on the same day (last Sunday) 2 were fine, but one is laying soft shells, giant double yolkers and even 2 soft shelled eggs within 20 minutes of each other, if I hadn't seen her do that I'd have been convinced that I had two of them laying soft shells. She's otherwise well and is actually top of the pecking order. It seems as if her system is all over the place, but yesterday she laid a perfectly normal egg, so fingers crossed everything has finally settled down. The girls were just 23 weeks when they started laying which, as Bramble says, is young for a large pure breed.

[Bramble-Poultry]

Tpeers - what can I say - 3 years at uni - something much have sunk in ;p (just don't ask questions on sheep - I missed sheep) Cow nutrition now thats my speciality!!!

btw - thanks for comments - looking at sorting the piccies now, grrr blinking internet.

[tlck9]

well, I've placed the vitamins in the water, and as yet since thursday no more soft eggs, souffle isnt laying still but no softies.

The other thing I noticed is that I had a tray of grit/sand in the pen, I took that out last week as it had gotten water logged - we've had so much rain!!

Anyway I put it back in as it was dry and immediately souffle got in and started pecking around...since then no soft eggs so i'm wondering if perhaps she doesnt take her grit from the red cup, but from this tray

So I add some oyster sell and other grit into it and I'm going to top it up later, so perhaps her calcium was lacking as I had removed this?

will keep you posted

Does any one know if you can use any shells, eg like a scallop shell in place of oyster shells

[tlck9]

we've got a souffle egg!!!! not soft one but a bit mis-shaped but a EGG

Souffle has had a reprieve (the OH and our farmer friend had already worked out a recipe!!)

You dont know how relieved I am and BIG BIG Thanks to everyone for their advice

[Bramble-Poultry]

yeah - go souffle, she will get it together as she gets into the swing of it.

[tlck9]

yeah - go souffle, she will get it together as she gets into the swing of it.

another egg from souffle - you dont know how much this makes me happy - this is actually better than my first ever egg

:

the tide is turning from bad to good luck ...here hoping

[Bramble-Poultry]

aww well done souffle, great news tlck

[tlck9]

after a couple of days of laying, we have now had a couple more soft eggs and 6 days without an egg?

I was so hoping we had cured this, but it seems not

[RichmondHens]

Don't know what to say tlck but if she were mine .......... well, we have no room here for hens that won't earn their keep (call me the wicked witch if you will).

You may have to accept she is just a "poor doer", and either keep her as a pet and not expect too much, or replace her. It IS coming to the end of the season, although if she is young I would expect her to keep going for a bit just yet, but I know you have had trouble on and off with her. If she looks and seems well in every other respect then there is not a lot else you can do, except think about her future .........

[Snadger]

...................................Toxins - the most common toxin your hen will ingest is a mycotoxin called aflatoxi, it is a produced by a mold found in corn, this is one of around 3000 mycotoxins that your bird can ingest, mycotoxins can interfere with the absorption and metabolism (use) of both calcium and Vitamin D amongst other things and this is the usual cause of deficiences when an otherwise seemingly appropriate diet is fed...........................................

Interesting post! I have been getting a single soft egg for the last week which is making a right mes of the nestbox straw and the other eggs.
I had some wheat which got damp in a shed and I suspected had been visited by rats.
I tied a rope around the neck of the 20 Kg bag and after puncturing some holes in the bottom, hung it in the run for them to peck at at will. As the weight decreased the bag rose up to about a foot off the bottom which was planned as I didn't want to encourage rats.
Mention of toxins has now got me thinking. They emptied the bag about a week ago and now I have a regular softie?
If it is toxins will they eventually rid themselves of them if they are just fed layers pellets and have access to clean water all the time? What do you reckon?

[Twinkle]

interesting about the toxins.
We buy a 20kg sack of corn for "treats" and luring them in from ranging on an evening - they get a scoopful between 4.
Out of 3 layers we've been having up to 2 softies a day, sometimes with no yolks.
They're in moult at the moment, I've been adding Poultry Spice to feeds.
I'd put it down to a duff batch of layers pellets seeing as it seemed to coincide with a new bag (usual brand) so I switched to a different type (the Fancy Foods one, enriched with nice stuff and selenium) rather than the cheaper ones our feed merchant usually keeps. Marginal improvement.
Not wanting to waste the pellets, I added limestone flour/garlic/crushed baked eggshells/poultry spice and tried again.
Still very hit and miss - at least one softy per day.