no shell

[cock o the north]

:-/ hi bird buddies, i have a hen who keeps laying eggs without shells ive tried grit etc with no luck is this a gene defect or something? whats my chances of getting a egg without a shell to hatch?

[Guest shadow]

none

[jimmy white]

none

 

eggxacctly ;D

[hicky]

try calcium tabs 1 every other day

[pjc]

soft shell eggs are a calcium deficiency, most grits don't have a huge ammount of calcium in it, if you can get it use limestone grit. Appart from giving calcium tabs you can put milk in the drinker and maybe even dampen the birds corn with oil and coat the grain with baby milk powder.

A sof shell egg won't hatch, it will get squashed long before it ever gets chance to even if it is fertile!

[Guest IB]

I think an odd soft shelled egg can be put down to a deficiency of some sort which can be put right by a food supplement. This seems to be a repeated case of soft shelled eggs so reckon its down to a defect rather than a deficiency - and something that's unlikely to be able to be corrected.

[DOVEScot]

It seems like a deficiency in the egg cycle, one thing I would try is layers mash or pellets to see if that makes any difference.

It does no hard in fact it is good for pigeons as a suppliment, it is to aid the constant egg production in hens plus all the other minerals and vitamins added to make it a complete food for chickens. Do not wet the mash, it goes sour very quickly and dries like plaster  

Poulets can have this problem but it soon clears up, but then again they are capable of laying every day or 200 - 300 a year