[Julia TE]

Morning all
Just come in from clearing out the chicken house and I am getting increasingly worried.  I have 5 hybrid chickens - 18 months old - who have all been laying well - until lately..  the last few weeks I've only been getting 2 or 3, and most mornings I am finding a mess in their house - I find them pecking away in the sawdust where there's been a broken (or maybe soft shelled) egg.  sometimes I find the remains of the shell and it's quite thin but not soft.  They have a big space to run around in and we let them out in to a bigger, fenced off space where there's grass.  I feed them on layers pellets, which they only seem to feed on first thing.  They seem happier in the grass and scratching around.  They don't seem interested in oyster shells although I'll persist with a bowl, and I've put vitamin solution in their drinking water.   This morning I was even more worried - when I opened the house up there seemed to be two eggs that had gone 'splat' (two patches of yolk anyway) and I also found a hardish dark pink lump, that had some mucus around it.  Can anyone advise on this?
All the girls seem ok looking at them - none are subdued and they all seem to run around happily.
Sorry this is very long winded and I'll be shorter next time!

[Chookiechook]

From what I have read on here this may herald the end of the birds laying life   It could be a lash....

Are the hens ex bat types??  They have a shorter laying life than pure bred hens

I have five exbats who until recently have laid well, but now am only getting a few eggs a week and some of those look like wrinkled washing up hands   Not very saleable

So my hens may be looking for a new, less productive life soon

[joyfull]

they may not be saleable but they are just as tasty 
It does sound like a lash to me as well.

[Chookiechook]

You try telling my fussy brother that one

I just keep the wrinklies for me ... I am not that fussy  :blink:

[Julia TE]

Thanks for the comments so far!  What's a lash?

My hens are only 18 months old - they started laying about December 2008 - I thought they would go on for a bit longer.  They're not ex battery - bought them at 12 weeks old.

[raeburg]

Sounds like a lash. It is tissue from the reproductive tract of the bird. It can spell the end of a birds' laying, some do lay again but more often not. For the soft shells, make sure your girls have access to oyster shell grit, and add some limestone flour to their feed. Vitamin d (in cod liver oil) can aid calcium absorption but is not to be overdone as it can cause kidney failure.