[kellym]

please help  my one girl is laying soft eggs randomly!!! 2 days ago she did this but i thought it was because the lawn mower had scared her then yesderday and today she laid normal eggs first thing in the morning, then earlier on today she laid another soft egg in the run randomly so that was 2 eggs laid today.

is there anything wrong with her and what can i check to make sure she is ok??

she looks normal, acts normal, eats normal, her comb is nice and red so visably i cant see anything, i did worm them yesterday but nothing like this has ever happened before.

any advice is welcome. thank you

[PaulineM]

What age is she?   Has she got access to oyster shell? 

[kellym]

she is just over a year old. her food had oyster shell mixed in with it and they also have a pot of mixed shell and grit available all the time.

[8doubles]

Have you tried a drop of cider vinegar in the drinking water to help improve calcium levels.
It seemed to do the trick with one of my hens.

[kellym]

they have cider vinegar in thier water every week, im really at a loss as to what more i can try and why this has started now?

[8doubles]

If the hen lays two eggs close together a hard shell followed by a softy less than 25hrs later the calcium levels may be ok and she is just a bit premature laying the second egg.
One of mine used to sometimes drop soft eggs off the perch when roosting, she has not done this for the last two years.
Yours should grow out of it.

[viettaclark]

I occasionally get a soft one even though the girls are 2 years old. They are laid at night so too early and not formed properly. Found one this morning, actually, but I'm hoping the next one will be normal, at the normal time of late morning.
If you can retrieve the egg in it's intact soft shell, it's edible (eat straightaway) but mine had been mashed!

[hillfooter]

If you are keeping the nutrition nice and simple , layer ad lib and a handful of poultry corn and she has access to grit and oyster shell ad lib I suspect she will return to normal.  Now is not the time to start experimenting with supplements when It's not clear this is a stable condition.  Most likely it is a temporary condition which will right itself no sence in introducing extra variables in the hope it might work.

What do you mean when you say that there's oystershell in their feed?  If you are adding oystershell to the feed I'd stop doing that it's possible to overdose calcium to the detriment of your chickens kidney function.  Normal compound layers feed should have around 4% calcium and with even high production hybrids (300+ eggs pa) 3.5% is generally accepted as adequate for pullets.  If they have additional oystershel grit available they will be well provided for without extra being supplemented.

ACV will have no appreciable affect on calcium uptake.  Whether you use this or not is up to you but I doubt it will have any effect one way or another.  Personally I'd much rather give clean fresh water daily than add ACV which just might affect their water intake either increasing it or reducing it.
HF

[kellym]

thanks for that HF i dont add anything to thier feed i think i got a little confussed sorry  they have straight layer crumb and a pot of mixed grit and shell availiable all the time. there has been no egg from her this morning and so far no softies through the day. hopefully this is just a blip that will pass.