Hi, My 3 rescue hens are probably over 2 years old now and I get about 5 eggs a week but most days there is a soft shelled egg in the nest box that they eat if I hav'nt discovered it. Any help would be great. Thanks.
Infectious Bronchitis is often what finally takes older birds (many birds carry this disease) and this is usually accompanied by a reduction in laying, reduced egg shell quality and sometimes watery albumens (the white of the egg), soft shelled eggs before they finally stop altogether. Check your birds for any sign of rales (rattley breathing).
I've heard it suggested (I think from Gail Damerow the American chicken health guru) that improving hydration can help shell quality and right now I've got some older hens who have poor egg shell quality with some soft shelled and I'm trying an electrolyte drink made from the following ingredients. I'm giving them this drink for 7 days and following it up with a multivitamin drink which should help calcium uptake. I use a pig and poultry multi vitamin available in a large sachet from Wells or many farm suppliers and is much more economic than lifeguard. It's too early to say yet from my experience if this will help though the initial signs look encouraging.
Disolve in 3 litres of water
5 ml of Salt substitute, (1 teaspoon of potassium chlorite)
7.5 ml (1 and a half teaspoons) of Bicarbarbonate of soda (baking soda)
15 ml (3 teaspoons) salt
20 ml (2 desert spoon) of glucose (optional)
Allow 200ml of drinking water per bird per day as a guide and mix up two days worth at a time in a drinker.
This is quite high in salt so I'd prefer to phase it out by topping up with fresh water after 6 days to water it down and so on until after nine days it's almost back to fresh water. Then make up the multivits for seven days.
I would think that excess calcium would be extracted by a bird's kidneys and passed and wouldn't accumulate as is suggested (and would be fatal) . I'm not expert here though, so I'll check with my animal scientist consultant (daughter Clare).
HF