[Flowerpower136]

Picked up 8 brand new ex batts on Saturday.  Love em to bits, and all look well and healthy.  All eating, drinking, pooing, etc etc.........but worried about soft shells.

Sunday, 7 good eggs, and 1 soft shell - soft of leathery pouch which had split open in the nest box.
Monday, 6 good eggs
This morning, another dud, apparently with no shell at all just a raw egg in the coup.

As they have only just come to me, am feeding 50/50 layers mash and ex-batt crumbs which they have all day. (Aiming to get them onto ex-batt pellets asap).  Yesterday also had some rice/carrot in the afternoon.  They have access to grit and greens, and are scratching around - saw one eat a small slug - very proud making!  

Is there anything else I can do?  Is it anything to worry about? Can't 'treat' any one hen, don't know whose laying them, or even if it's just the one hen.

Any advice from you peeps would be appreciated

[joyfull]

Try washing out their shells and then baking them. Crush up into small pieces and then feed back to them (if you mix this into their food they will all get some) or buy oyster shell, either of which will give them the added calcium needed for egg production  . It could of course be that she is older and she may be coming to the end of her egg laying.
Keep an eye on her to make sure her back end stays clean 

[Flowerpower136]

Try washing out their shells and then baking them. Crush up into small pieces and then feed back to them (if you mix this into their food they will all get some) or buy oyster shell, either of which will give them the added calcium needed for egg production  . It could of course be that she is older and she may be coming to the end of her egg laying.
Keep an eye on her to make sure her back end stays clean 

Eggs are so fresh, can't get the shells off!  Have ordered fine oyster shell and will mix in food. How much would you say, couple of teaspoons per day for 8 hens, or perhaps that's too much? The grit I've got does have shell fragments in, but it's very coarse, and I've no guarantee that they are all eating it.

[tonethebone]

You could try putting a handful in a seperate feeder, or bowl.
I have the same number of ex batts and have exactly the same problem at the moment.
Trouble is my lot don't seem to like oyster shell as a seperate feed.
Have brought some mixed corn which has, amongst other goodies, crushed oyster shell and they seem to be enjoying that.
I mix it in with their pellets.

You could also try some limestone flour (only a couple of quid for a large bucket) mixed in with their feed.

[Flowerpower136]

Thanks for that.  Glad I'm not the only one.  Very nervous new owner at the moment, and dreading doing something stupid through ignorance.

So, just let me check............. to normal food I'm adding:-

Garlic powder - tonic and reduce smell of poo (v important)
Poultry spice - general tonic till get feathers back
Oyster shell or limestone flour - prevent soft shell

And a small dose of apple cider vinegar in the water 15ml per ltr.

Should there be anything else?!  The hen stuff has now taken over the utility room, and the office store room.  But then again, the kitchen is overflowing with eggs.

[joyfull]

Mine wouldn't eat oyster shell so every now and then I sling it on the grass/clover and when the next time I throw the mixed corn out for them in their rush for their treat they eat the shell as well. In between times they have their own baked shells.
Flowerpot, when you have broken the shells open give them a good clean - any egg will come off with the membane, then you can bake them - or rather than boiling your eggs have them poached (my favourite way  ) so that way no shell is stuck to the egg.

[hillfooter]

If you want to give extra calcium provide them with mixed poultry grit it's dirt cheap and provides them with calcium and insoluable grit to grind their food in their gizzards with.  lifes too short to bother with crushing egg shells and then sterilising them in the oven for the pitifull amount of crushed shell you end up with.  You can buy a kilo of mixed grit for around a £1 you'd need to crush over 200 egg shells to get that much and use I don't know how much electricity or gas sterilising them.

Here's some  simple rules of thumb when deciding to use all those suppliments or not.

 1 If you want to cure a problem (ie soft shelled eggs) and you have been advised to try a suppliment (added calcium) by all means try it and if it works great but if it doessn't after a fair trial stop using it.  Don't forget problems can be caused by giving excesssive minerals as well as treating a deficiency.

2  Before you give a suppliment be clear about why you are doing it and what results you expect to see,  Don't  just give it anyway because you've been told it will do this or that as otherwise you'll end up a hypocondriac with a shopping list as long as your arm and some very poorly nourished chickens.  You've already acquired quite a list.

3 For a general staple diet use for layers, and unless you've been professionally advised otherwise, use a good quality layers compound feed in pellet form.  This is a BALENCED diet specially formulated by nutrionalists for feeding layers.

4 Feed treats such as poultry corn and household scraps sharingly and certainly no more than 10% of their diet.

5  Don't forget specialist feed companies market feeds and suppliments to attract buyers not chickens and just because it costs twice as much that's no guarentee it's going to do your chx any more good than the staple feed. 

Regards

[hillfooter]

Oh forgot to say don't worry about soft shells just yet give them some time to adjust to their new life.  It's much much too early to start making diagnosis of supposed problems and dosing them with suppliments.   As you say they look healthy and as long as they are doing all the usual chicken things like scratting about, preening eating and generally being active there 's probably nothing to be worried about and plenty to be thankful for.
regards

[Flowerpower136]

Thanks for all of that.

I suspect I am being gullible re the supplements.  Don't believe in taking such things myself, stick to a varied healthy diet, and no need.  So don't know why I'm behaving differently with the girls.  Bubblewrap syndrome.......much watch out that!

They are on a mix of layers mash and ex-batt crumbs, so all good stuff, and just starting to introduce ex-batt pellets.  They had a little corn yesterday, and are getting stuck into the greens in the pen.  Nicely weeding the dry stone wall, which was always such a chore for me!  Though I have removed all foxglove seedings.

Hens are most definately happy, perky, chasing round, scratching, preening, eating, drinking, pooing and more pooing.  Everything I coud hope for, and I am very thankful for that .