[eggbertina]

My 3 ISA browns are just over 1 year old, healthy and laying one egg per day between 6am and 8am regularly .... until today.  I collected the 3 eggs and about one hour later noticed one hen hunched in a corner of the run on her own, eyes closed and looking rather miserable.  All day she's hardly moved and not eaten.  At 6pm we noticed an egg on the ground in the run.  They ALWAYS lay in their nest boxes - so this was highly unusual.  The egg was quite large and the surface was rough and paler than normal.  The poorly hen was back in the nest box, so we opened the lid to see how she was .. in time to see her lay another egg, with a thin squashy shell.  Within an hour she was outside, running about with the others, eating and busily scratching about as normal.  What happened?? Has anyone else experienced a hen doing this, please?

[Casey76]

The occasional soft shell egg is nothing to worry about.  Only if they become persistent do they indicate something is wrong.

Hens look very sorry for themselves when trying to lay a soft shelled egg becasue the peristaltic movements of the oviduct have nothing to press against.  It's been likened to having bad menstrual cramps. 

[eggbertina]

Thank you!! That's a relief.  This morning she seems fine.  We're down to 2 eggs this morning, so clearly she hasn't laid yet ... guess she's going to be out of sync.  Will keep a close eye on her to see how she goes.  I wonder if that other very rough and light coloured egg (that was unusually laid in the run) had more than it's fair share of calcium and was part of the problem?