[Rickety Gate]

Hi all.........hope someone out there can give us some advice on an ongoing shell prob.

We are relatively new and novice chook keepers and have for the last 6 months been the very proud gaurdians of 5 battery rescued girls. Since we had them they have laid regular as clock work..........normally 2-3 eggs a day .

However......just recently we have started to find, periodically, one of the egg's provided has a soft shell.........so soft that it cannot retain its contents  . When these eggs appear, they are normally laid on the floor of the hen house under the roost bar and not in the laying box where all the other eggs are laid.

Our girls are free range, fed on layers pellets with a handful of corn for a treat, have constant access to grit and water, together with being given veg scraps as and when.

Can anyone shed some light on this egg  issue..........is one of our chooks ill??? They all appear fit and well to look at them  .

[raeburg]

You can give a calcium supplement, either in their feed in the form of limestone flour (available from "horsey" provision shops) or as a liquid in their water (I have some called Calcivet from a pigeon fancier specialist). Word of warning though, too much calcium can cause kidney problems.  Have your birds been wormed etc?  Hope this helps

[Exbattmad]

If you are going to supplement with a calcium liquid then its always best to give cod liver oil for the vit D essential for absorption of the calcium.
I put about a teaspoon on their food and mix well.
I have a lot of friends who give oregostim and this has cleared up all their softie probs.

[Aunt Sally]

Good advice above.

Do you supply them with crushed oyster shell to snack on Rickety Gate  ?

[Jeanette]

[ Hi, I have got 8 ex battery chooks and they are all laying well. I was told to put the empty egg shells in a hot oven for a couple of minutes then break them up and give them back to the chooks with their feed it seems to stop soft shells and its cheep. I am new to this site and it is great to meet so many like minded people i am always looking for new information.
Jeanette, Cheltenham

[smiler43]

Yep you can do that, but make sure they are crushed up fine so they don't know they are egg shells, dont want to encourage them to eat their own eggs.

[Rickety Gate]

Thanks for all the sound advice............another soft shell today so we will introduce the old shells to their diet. We currently give our girls oyster shell........so we will introduce some re-cycled egg shell and some calcium, trust that will do the trick.

Thaks again for the advice