One of my hens

[Katiean]

I do not know if it is one of my older (7+ years) hens or one of my hens that started laying last year but, every so often when I collect eggs I thought one of them was eating the eggs in the nest. Then one day there was an egg about the size of a dime. Now tonight when I went out to get the eggs there was an egg with NO SHELL. Does anyone know what I can do to help her produce a shell? Currently they get a mix of scratch grains and egg maker pellets with oyster shell. I am at a loss.

 

[jayne]

Katiean, in my experience, sometimes they just lay wonky eggs in spite of feeding them correctly. Sometimes it's due to coming into or going out of molt (which is happening right now with mine) or due to illness and approaching old age. It seems like you are feeding them the right stuff and supplementing them with oyster shell, even though the feed back says it's a 'complete' feed for layers.

I probably get a shell-less egg about every other month or so from my 10 hens. I pick it up as soon as I find it, because I don't want them to get the idea that those eggs are very tasty! They're for ME!

I wouldn't worry about an occasional shell-less or tiny egg. If it became more frequent, then I would re-examine their health and feed and supplements. I also put a vitamin supplement called Avia Charge 2000 in their water. It's quite expensive to buy, but I am sure it is very good for them and helped with a bit of feather picking problem a couple of years back.

Hope that helps ease your concerns.

Jayne

 

[Pepipony]

About the small egg, generally this happens with the hens first/last eggs. It shouldnt be a common thing, if it is, there is something wrong with the hen. The shellless egg can happen if the hen is quite startled or scared when she is just about to lay the egg. They can eat the eggs if they are bored, missing a mineral, or if they dont want 'that hen' to lay in the nest that they have chosen. Try feeding crushed oyster alongside the mix that you are feeding now. I know your mix has this, but if they can choose to eat it alone, they will eat more than the mix has. Also chick starter can help. With my hens I usually had a mix of scratch, oyster shell and chick starter. If the feed store had a busted bag of corn chops, I would add that as well.

 

[Katiean]

What is corn chops? I have never heard of it. As far as the tiny egg. All of my hens started to lay last year so it is not a "NEW" hen. I do not know if it was an old hen. The shelless egg looked like when you drop an egg into a frying pan to cook it. No shell at all and the yoke was not broken.

 

[NoddalottaFarm]

Wow... we never had a "shell-less" egg in all the years we had chickens! I had no idea that could happen. Are you sure they are getting enough calcium? Do you offer oyster shell?

 

[FoRebel]

We've had that happen a couple (maybe 3 times). We started to feed oyster shells. You can get them at the local feed store... We haven't had a shell-less egg since.

 

[Pepipony]

Corn chops are just fine chopped corn. I noticed today at the feed store that there is a whole bunch of chicken feeds, kinda different than 10 years ago when I had mine LOL The shellless egg, is just missing the shell, it still has the membrane that does hold the egg together. Really odd looking and even odder, feeling

 

[Katiean]

I got another tiny egg

Our hens are Red production, Silver Winedots and Buff Orphingtons. All of them started a minimum of last year. Some are very old.