[moomoos42]

Can anyone advise please? One of my hens has twice this week laid a normal egg then some while later laid a soft shelled one. She seems well, bright red crop but she does just sit looking miserable when she's about to lay the soft shell egg, but is soon up and scrapping after she's passed it. Now this is a strain on her poor little body and i don't know how to help her. Could calcium supplement help?

[kegs]

Does she have oyster shell available?

[moomoos42]

Yes. I got grit with it in. 

[Lindeggs]

If she is eating a properly formulated layer ration, it should have enough calcium for her 'normal' requirements.  As she has additional oyster shell grit available, she should be able to self-select as much additional calcium as she needs from that for any 'above normal' requirements.  Oyster shell is almost pure calcium carbonate, so it's exactly what she needs to build her own egg shells.

Am I reading your post correctly that she is laying more than one egg every 24 hours?  If so that will be her problem - she is simply laying eggs faster than her system can produce shells for them. 

As far as I know all you can do is keep an eye on her general health and be ready to act quickly if a soft-shelled egg breaks inside her (there are lots of posts on here about that - people recommend giving her a warm bath to help her expel the rest of the egg).

Also make sure she has plenty of good food and fresh water, and make sure the others aren't picking on her while she's feeling poorly.

Ideally it will sort itself out as her egg-laying pattern settles down, but it seems for some hens this is a life-long problem.

[joyfull]

what age and breed of hen is she?

[Casey76]

Most hens will lay a few soft shelled eggs in their life.

It can happen if there has been a disturbance in the previous few days, or even seemingly for no reason at all.

It takes approximately 25 hours for one yolk to become a fully shelled egg.  If a yolk is released out of sequence, then it wont spend enough time in the shell gland to get a proper coating.

If your hen is on a commercial layer pellet/mash, and also has access to oystershell, then extra supplementation with calcium could acutally be more harmful than beneficial.

Yes, a hen will look miserable as she is trying to lay a soft shelled egg, because the muscles have nothing firm to push against to move it down to the vent (think of strong menstrual cramps), but as long as she perks up after, then it doesn't really do them any harm.

[moomoos42]

Thank you all so much for your advice and information.
 Loads i did not know about the egg producing process.
 My Gals are Rhode Island Reds crossed with White Sussex high bred.
They have layers pellets and a little corn plus grapes, cabbage, pasta, sweetcorn, potato peelings (cooked) and meal worms all in moderation as a treat to get them back in once they've had a good forage!
We lost my little Ellie last Saturday and since they were hatched together and Agnes and Ellie always slept side by side in the perch could that have upset her enough to mess her system up? Do chickens grieve?
She laid a normal egg this morning

[hillfooter]

Thank you all so much for your advice and information.
 Loads i did not know about the egg producing process.
 My Gals are Rhode Island Reds crossed with White Sussex high bred.
They have layers pellets and a little corn plus grapes, cabbage, pasta, sweetcorn, potato peelings (cooked) and meal worms all in moderation as a treat to get them back in once they've had a good forage!
We lost my little Ellie last Saturday and since they were hatched together and Agnes and Ellie always slept side by side in the perch could that have upset her enough to mess her system up? Do chickens grieve?
She laid a normal egg this morning

Your birds are "hybrids" and pretty much all hybrids (similar to a mongrel in dog terms ie not a pure breed) are some cross between a RIR & a Light Sussex (not white).

As far as I'm aware chx aren't emotionally disturbed by losing a chum. 

It's not unusual for chx newly come into lay will have a few laying problems until their bodies adapt to the routine of laying.  I wouldn't start to supplement calcium at the this stage unless it persists say for more than 3 or 4 weeks.  Cut out treats and just feed layers ad lib and a handful of corn in an evening.  Ocassional vegatables are ok too but stop the other treats (particularly mealworms or any processed food like pasta) for the present.  Ensure they have fresh water every day and see how they go on.

HF