[danfinn1]

It seems I have been spoiling my birds, by giving them too much corn. I thought they were hungry as there is not much green left to peck at so fed them a couple of handfull a few times in the afternoon. Hen and Beryl were ok and laying regular eggs but sandy was producing very white and thin shells, sometimes very rough, then she went about 5 days doing soft or no shell at all.

I now offer the birds a handfull of layer pellets in the afternoon, later then corn, then layer pellets. Although layer pellets and oyster shell is always available in the run, they dont go back in much in these long afternoons.

Today we had our three normal eggs again.

Like most pets they will eat anything when hand fed or if a different container

[scenik]

the most common cause of soft egg shells is not enough grit, i feed mine a mixture of corn and layers pellets mixed with grit, this has never caused me any problems

[Sassy]

Grit is used to enable the chicken to break food down and is not digested. It is oyster shell, which they are getting, which would affect shell quality.

Always a bad idea to give too much corn, it is not a balanced diet unlike the layers, and can make them fat resulting in no eggs!