soft shell eggs

[ouroldworkshop]

Hello, this has been asked a lot but I wanted to check what your thoughts are on a 25 week old hen (Lena) laying soft eggs overnight. she started laying normal eggs about 4 weeks ago. She then became egg bound and we had to help her by clearing out a broken egg from her oviduct. She seemed to recover well, had a few days off laying and then laid normally for a few days. She's now had a few days of no eggs in the day, looking uncomfortable in the evenings and laying one or 2 soft eggs overnight (we've kept her indoors overnight a couple of times to monitor her so we know it's her laying the softies). She's rushing out in the mornings and seems to be alert, eating and drinking well. We've got 3 other similar aged girls and they are laying perfect eggs with hard shells. I'm adding calcium to their water and they have oyster shell grit available at all times. They free range for a couple of hours a day. I'm worried that Lena has some genetic problem that is going to make her ill eventually. Or maybe she's still settling in to laying.

 

[aart]

I'd pop a 500mg calcium citrate with Vit D-3 tablet in to her once a day until shells improve.

What all ad how exactly are you feeding your flock?

If the other birds are having no problems, then it could just her individual problem.

 

[ouroldworkshop]

Hello, thanks for the reply. They are all fed on layer pellets and always available. I've been crushing their eggshells and feeding back to them. I've got calcium carbonate tablets with D3 but I think I've read that these are not easily absorbed so I'll get the calcium citrate ordered

 

[kadani]

Will they eat my vitamin pills? Or are there pills made for chickens?

 

[rosemarythyme]

Will they eat my vitamin pills? Or are there pills made for chickens?

Human calcium tablets work just fine.

 

[kadani]

Thanks so much! I am reassured.