soft shelled eggs - anything wrong??

[nmayhew]

Hi,
We have 5 light sussex hens; 2 are only about 20 weeks old and not laying yet, the other 3 are a year old and lay pretty well.

However, we still get quite a few soft shelled eggs (maybe one in five?) and whilst I don't mind, I am concerned that one or all may be unwell.

They have a diet of mash supplemented with oyster shell mixed in, plus poultry shield sprinkled in their feeder; they have corn, cheese and raisins as a treat.

They have a large pen (3m x 6m) and are free to roam the yard whenever we are about (50% of the time), so in general i think they have an "interesting" life.

They 'look' healthy enough, so is anything wrong?

Many thanks,

Nick

[Paulottie]

I found mine didn't much care for the oyster shell....certainly they were free range much of the afternoon anyway so got enough grit. Many folk feed eggshells to theirs...which makes sense...everything they need to produce a shell contained within!.... usually you dry them out in the oven and crumble them up...you could try mixing it in the mash

[MaureenHall]

You could try adding some poultry spice to their feed, or add a little limestone flour and cod liver oil (the oil helps to absorb the calcium). Save your egg shells, bake them when you've got the oven on, crush them to a powder and add them to their feed. Good luck xx

[nmayhew]

thanks guys - will definitely try the recycling shell thing

so, any alternatives to oyster shell or should i grind it up a bit more maybe?

also, should i up their ration of poultry spice?

thanks again,

Nick

[Suechooks]

I read that sometimes this can be connected with birds exposed to Infectious Bronchitis virus. Commercially bred hybrids are given live vaccine for this as youngsters so occasionally may have reaction affecting the oviduct which can lead to wrinkled thin or shell-less eggs.
It would be interesting to know if it occurs in pure breeds or home bred birds.

[frias]

I bought a huge sack of mixed grit and oyster shell when I first got the girls and it tends to be ignored. The pieces are very big and in fact some of the shells are cockle not oyster. However I found that Pampered Pets sell very fine ground oyster shell and fine grit and the girls prefer this.
Soft shells do seem to be common with some older ex-batts. Not all though. One of my oldest girls lays a good firm shelled egg nearly every day whereas the other old girl lays just a yolk, once a week. I wish she wouldn't as I worry about egg peritonitis but even calcium suppliments from the vet hasn't helped.

[Glutton4...]

Why are they still on mash? They can eat Pellets at that age, and save you some effort!
Just a thought!

Mine get baked/crushed egg shells mixed in to their pellet hopper, and their afternoon treats. I only seem to get softies when they are going into or coming out of the moult, and don't get many otherwise. Mine free range and have access to soil, sand and all sorts.

[nmayhew]

Why are they still on mash? They can eat Pellets at that age, and save you some effort!

well, your average chicken will roar through it's daily ration of food in pellet form in less than an hour (40mins or so if greedy), and yet with mash it will take them 3 or 4 times as long to eat a day's worth.

i don't want my girls getting a) bored or b) fat, so mash is the only food for me.

breeders / people who "show" their chix use pellets pretty much exclusively so their lovely looking birds don't get messy etc.

chickens are not like say big cats and are not desdigned to eat food for one or 2 days in the space of 20mins (the "big kill"), at least not in my book.

apart from that, both mash and pellets are meant to be "complete" foods, so whether pellets or mash should not be the problem.

sorry, but i wasn't asking about the pros and cons of mash vs pellets...

nick

[Hilary B]

Much more wastage with mash, because if they do spill it (and they will always manage to spill some) they can still pick up pellets (unless things are very muddy), but spilled mash is lost.
Best advantage of mash is the ease of making up 'proper' mash (I know the packet says mash, but unless you damp it it is MEAL), hot when things get cold, by adding warm water.
If chooks get some free-ranging time, they don't need to be slowed down eating. That is why battery farms use meal, to keep them busy longer when they have nothing else to do!

[Suechooks]

3 in one day!

Unbelievably I found three soft shelled eggs between 2 coops this morning! One was laid by my old ex-batt and was intact. When I picked it up I thought there was a lash inside but when I broke the membrane there was a tube shaped shell inside! Talk about getting things the wrong way round! Poor old Squeaky!

[Bramble-Poultry]

Aww poor Squeeky Sue

Mash verses Pellets - hmm nothing in it as such nutritionally, less mess and hastle with pellets as mash should never be fed as "meal" and should always be made up into mash so takes extra time and effort and mess!! There is much more waste with mash to pellets as it should be replaced everyday and left over food thrown away as it introduces bacteria into the bird especially in hot weather - technically mash should not be left down all day, whereas pellets if fed from a feeder properly will be fine for several days. The chicken will eat no more pellets than mash and will stop eating when the crop is full regardless of the type of food fed and whilst they may take more time to eat mash than pellet this is not necessarily a good thing as chickens get bored and are likely to walk away from it and not eat sufficient food, especially if tehre is a more interesting yard to scratch around! It works in the industry cos the bird cant walk away from it.

Soft shelled eggs - there are lots of causes, lack of water being a biggie as is a lack of phospohorus NOT Calcium, although calcium deficiency is also a major cause. Cod liver Oil really does help in the uptake of calcium AND phosphorus and I'm not going into why here and now - However - If you want all of my knowledge on soft shelled eggs the look in the "sticky" post chicken health advice I seem to recall writing a large lecture on it some months back!!