[babaloo151070]

Hello Chicken Lovers please can someone help?
Well my three hens have settled in well and have been laying an egg each a day forthe past four, five weeks untill last week!  One of my hen's is laying eggs with soft shells almost like egg shaped balloons?  On a few occations she has laid two of these a day and on saturday she also laid a normal egg.  Ive found this quite upsetting (silly I know)  but tonight went I closed up there house for the night I did my usual and opened up their hatch to give them their good night pat and have our lil chat and I noticed she had laid another soft shell.  As I went to take it she trd on it and it burst and before I could do anything all three jumped on it like vultures!!!!

I was horrified and have just sat down needless to say shocked and yes again a lil upset by it all.  Please can anyone offer me some adive on this.

Hope your all well

Regards

A deflated Fred 

[joyfull]

Hi, Fred, besides having access to layers pellets all day do they also have access to greens and oyster shell?

[babaloo151070]

Yes they have a grit that contains oyster shell and they have greens also but I was told not to give them too much green stuff and extras as it gives them a runny belly???

[joyfull]

just keep an eye on the soft egg layer hopefully it should sort itself out ok. The rest eating it up is normal - for protrin and also to remove any evidence that may attract preditors - rats, magpies etc.

[otis pony]

Having the same problem as you at the moment , what was the outcome?  Did your hen return to normal laying and if so what did you do?  These girls can be a worry!!

[Snoop]

Well, we had the same thing a little while back with one of our hens, which laid two eggs, one of them outside the henhouse. The other hen gave it a tentative prod with her beak and of course the membrane broke and the two of them lapped the egg up.

I'm guessing that laying two eggs in one day requires a lot of food input and it's probably impossible for a hen to provide two hard shells.

Our hens free range. To solve the problem, what I did was shut them up in the run for longer in the morning and earlier at night. They've got pretty well nothing else to do but eat their 'proper' hen food, as opposed to mooch around, dustbathe, pick at weeds and harass the insect population and our cats and dog. After a few days, the problem sorted itself out.

[otis pony]

Hi, that makes sense as usually the hens are not let out until lunchtime, when I come in from work, however at weekends they get longer to roam and rarely venture back into the run to eat pellets, will keep them shut up for longer at the weekend.  Thx for that Sn

Well, we had the same thing a little while back with one of our hens, which laid two eggs, one of them outside the henhouse. The other hen gave it a tentative prod with her beak and of course the membrane broke and the two of them lapped the egg up.

I'm guessing that laying two eggs in one day requires a lot of food input and it's probably impossible for a hen to provide two hard shells.

Our hens free range. To solve the problem, what I did was shut them up in the run for longer in the morning and earlier at night. They've got pretty well nothing else to do but eat their 'proper' hen food, as opposed to mooch around, dustbathe, pick at weeds and harass the insect population and our cats and dog. After a few days, the problem sorted itself out.

oop