Calcium? Spotted, thin egg

[Crystalcatch]

My Brahma usually lays speckled eggs, but today her egg has a thin shell and is very spotted with bumps. She is 9 months old and all the hens eat layer feed with calcium. I do have oyster shells available in their run, but I don’t think anyone eats them. Do they need oyster shells if the feed has calcium? Should I take the oyster shells away?

 

[DemeterAD9]

It does look pretty bumpy but I wouldn’t be too concerned seeing as she is a fairly new layer. New layers are bound to pop out a few odd eggs. The layer feed and oyster shells should be providing everything they need to form good shells. If she keeps laying eggs like that then it is likely more of a genetic thing.

On a side note, I also have a light Brahma who lays very similar looking speckled eggs! I didn’t think brahmas were known for their speckled eggs but I guess it’s pretty common? Mine tends to have the speckles around the fat end but sometime there are none.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Leave the oyster shell availsble. You can't tell tthey're eating it because they take so little, but trust me, they are. Over the course of a month or so you may see the level go down, but you won't from one day to the next. Some birds need a good boost, so you might give her extra in the form of a calcium citrate +D3 tablet administered directly into her beak at night after she roosts (so you don't have chase and catch her). Just pop it right in her beak, she'll swallow it. The D3 helps make the calcium more bioavailable. Do this nightly for about a week. It's Citracal or its generic equivalent and any store that sells vitamins or supplements will have it.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

You might also switch to a 20% protein all-flock formula with no calcium, it's suitable for layers and non-layers alike, provided you supply oyster shell on the side for the layers.

 

[Mrs. K]

Really if you do nothing, it will sort itself out. Laying eggs is a bodily process, which can be effected by several things. Diet is really not as influential as one might think. Your feed is meeting her needs, and really there is nothing wrong in oyster shell on the side.

The eggs themselves just have quite a bit more variance than people raised on store bought eggs expect. Commercial houses also have funky eggs - they just sell them to commercial food production. They sell the perfect ones to people in the grocery store.