Hi.
I have 3 ex-battery hens. 1 was rescued in July 2011 (along with 2 others that died in December and January), the other 2 in December.
One of the December girls (Jo) was the scruffiest we have had but now has the best feathers, and is still producing new ones. every week or so she passes an empty egg membrane (and has even been running around the garden with one hanging out of her vent in the past). When we first got her she did lay good eggs although not very frequently.
The other December bird (Mary) has laid "supermarket" eggs throughout her time with us until very recently. She now lays irratically and even she has laid some shell-less eggs. Mary is now the scruffiest bird with lots of bare patches. We've always presumed she's been using her energy to produce eggs rather than feathers.
Finally, Babs the oldest bird. She has always been regular layer with large eggs. The shells have become paper thin and today we had 3 shell-less eggs so we are presuming that they are all now suffering in the same way.
The paper thin shells have led to another problem of egg eating. We have ordered roll away nest box inserts to try to sort this issue as fake hard eggs haven't resolved it.
The shell-less eggs look like little white/cream leathery pouches and one today was even brown.
They are fed on ex-batt pellets, have grass and the garden to roam in (althogh their free ranging has been curtailed about 3 weeks ago as we decided we wanted some lawn for the summer that wasn't scratched up and coverd in poo! They have oyster shell & baked and finely ground egg shell added to their food. They do get some treats - greens (dandelions, etc + what they find in the garden) and corn.
I am worried on 2 fronts. 1 - we're missing out on the eggs. And 2 - there is something seriously wrong with them.
Any advice would be gratefully received.
Jackie