Excessive calcium deposits on eggs

[DonyaQuick]

I have a cochin pullet about 9 months old who started laying 2-3 weeks ago. Aside from her first couple of eggs which were pretty normal, all of her subsequent eggs look like this one, with really excessive calcium deposits. I've seen a bit of extra calcium deposits on plenty of eggs before due to hens getting a bit too much calcium, but nothing this extreme and with such consistency. There's always a great big blob like this on the top of the egg. More bizarrely, her eggs often also have extra bits of calcium on the inside. The amount inside varies more, but there were a couple recently with a very large quantity of little calcium beads floating arond in the albumen when I cracked them open. She and her sisters are all acting healthy and eating Kalmbach 20% with oyster shell and regular grit both available on the side. The consistency of the excessive deposits for a couple weeks now makes me feel like this might not just be a new layer glitch. I don't know what other issue would cause this though, unless she's just eating an insane amount of oyster shell for some reason. The oyster shell consumption rate for her flock is high enough that it's plausible she's doing that. If she is, I don't really know what to do and would worry about possible similar kidney/gout issues down the line, but I have no idea how to stop it while letting the other pullets have what they need. Anyone have ideas?

 

[AGeese]

Could be she's holding on to eggs longer for some reason so the the calcium builds up. What's her schedule for laying?

 

[DonyaQuick]

Could be she's holding on to eggs longer for some reason so the the calcium builds up. What's her schedule for laying?

She’s a mostly daily layer right now, as are her sisters. She’ll go 4-5 days in a row and then have a break day, but the every day eggs still have the deposits. I would think she couldn’t hold them too long with that schedule? Unless they’re all a bit behind schedule somehow. She’s a late morning layer; no contention over nest boxes that I’ve seen to motivate waiting to lay.

 

[Mrs. K]

As they are young birds, you could take away the oyster shell. Young layers really have enough calcium at the beginning.

But truthfully, I just think it is a laying glitch, and it might be a glitch she has all her life. In reality, they lay what they lay, and people really have little influence on it. Hence, you have two other birds that are laying just fine with the same feed options.

Sometimes hens lay soft shells, and people immediately say more calcium... but what I have found is it takes about 7 days for the oyster shell to fix it, and a week if you do nothing.

Mrs K