Egg reduction and soft shells.

Hello,

I am hoping someone can help.  I have 3 hens in the garden they live in an Eglu and have been with us for nearly 3 years.   In the last month or so their egg numbers have dropped.  They used to be really reliable and we got 3 eggs most days with a drop in the winter which we expected.  Suddenly we were only getting 2 and now 1 or none.  The occasional egg we do get is usually very soft or seems to have collapsed through the bars before we can get it.  We give them fresh water each day and the occasional treat such as corn or a few spring green leaves. They roam outside and we have not changed their feed supplier.  They all appear healthy with clean vents and no dribbling noses etc.  When we go out they run over to us as before and generally appear to be in good health. 

I thought for a while that maybe they were a bit shocked by the building works we were having done on the house but the numbers have not come back up and now the eggs we do get are soft or collapsed.

Can someone help?  Any suggestions. 

Thanks.

Do you give them crushed oyster shell as a calcium supplement ?

They will probably stop more or less in the next few weeks and the days draw in, you probably noticed a reduction this time last year.

The fact they are hybrids( as others have suggested) has a signicant bearing in how long they will lay for. They may start up again next year around February although if they have been laying prolifically the last 3 years the numbers will be greatly reduced, one or two may more or less stop. You will find the egg quality is poorer as basically hybrids aren't really designed to lay past their second season so their egg-laying "equipment" gets a bit worn out as well as the number of egg cells.

Have they moulted yet?

sounds like a possible combination of things,
1, getting older and egg production will decline at this age.
2, days are getting shorter and egg laying is less through winter
3, they are moulting in which case egg production will be almost non-existent during this time and there is a possibility that they lay soft shelled eggs during moult.

We had 4 hybrids initially who layed an egg a day without fail for 2 yrs, after then it started to be more sporadic .  If you have got them to almost 3 yrs of production I think you have done well.

You now have a difficult decision, do you keep them on as pets for possibly a good few yrs without any eggs or do you cull them and get more layers in the spring?  If they are not laying because of the moult, (which you say they are doing at the moment) egg production may pick up again once they have gone through it.  Give them some poultry spice mixed with their food and or some battles tonic in the water.

Not an easy one I know.  

There is no way a hen will lay for 7 yrs, a 'lifetime' supply is a bit misleading.

Oh dear.  I think you have all confirmed what I hoped to not hear. 

I am going to keep them over the winter and see how it goes.  They might pick up a little bit to produce enough for the 3 of us. 

In the meantime I am going to write to Omlet about their statement as it is very misleading and I now face the difficult decision of keeping or passing on my pets.  I would love to keep them but do not have the space. 

As Omlet's website states "comes with a lifetime supply of eggs" 

In the meantime I am going to write to Omlet about their statement as it is very misleading

They don't actually say that.  What they say is 

"A free supply of eggs with every chicken! Each chicken will reward you with an egg most mornings. What could be better than that? "

Here

a life times supply of eggs could just mean that your hens will keep on laying but that their egg production will ease off a bit and may go down to just one egg periodically (whether soft shelled or not). Therefore they are still technically still laying.