Thin shelled/no shell eggs

[Obiwan Henobi]

I have a 2 1/2 year old Easter Egger that frequently produces extremely thin-shelled eggs and sometimes no-shelled eggs. When she does produce eggs with shells, they are often oddly shaped and almost always have pimple-like formations on one end (I assume these are calcium deposits?). The flock has 24 hour access to Layer feed and crushed oyster shell in a separate feeder. She appears completely healthy otherwise. Any ideas on how I can address the issue?

 

[Debbie292d]

The most common cause for thin egg shells is lack of calcium. Whilst there could be some other type of infection that might be related to eqq quality, you'd most likely have seen signs of something else wrong with her.

Could other chickens be pushing her away from the feed/oyster shells?

If you have some Poultry Cell or Nutra-Drench vitamins for their water, I'd give them all that every other day for a couple of weeks.

 

[aart]

I have a 2 1/2 year old Easter Egger that frequently produces extremely thin-shelled eggs and sometimes no-shelled eggs. When she does produce eggs with shells, they are often oddly shaped and almost always have pimple-like formations on one end (I assume these are calcium deposits?). The flock has 24 hour access to Layer feed and crushed oyster shell in a separate feeder. She appears completely healthy otherwise. Any ideas on how I can address the issue?

Has she always done this ever since she's been laying?
Do your other birds lay 'good' eggs?
Is she's the only one with this issue and it's along term thing,
no supplement is likely to 'fix' it.....she's just got a wonky reproductive system.

 

[Obiwan Henobi]

The most common cause for thin egg shells is lack of calcium. Whilst there could be some other type of infection that might be related to eqq quality, you'd most likely have seen signs of something else wrong with her.

Could other chickens be pushing her away from the feed/oyster shells?

If you have some Poultry Cell or Nutra-Drench vitamins for their water, I'd give them all that every other day for a couple of weeks.

I do have some vitamin supplements I could add to their water. But if the other hens don't need it, would the extra supplements be detrimental to their health? I doubt she is being pushed away from the crushed oyster shell because this particular hen tends to be dominant on the pecking order.

 

[Obiwan Henobi]

Has she always done this ever since she's been laying?
Do your other birds lay 'good' eggs?
Is she's the only one with this issue and it's along term thing,
no supplement is likely to 'fix' it.....she's just got a wonky reproductive system.

The calcium deposits on her eggs have been appearing for several months, but the thin/no shell eggs is fairly recent. She is the only one with this issue.

 

[aart]

The calcium deposits on her eggs have been appearing for several months, but the thin/no shell eggs is fairly recent. She is the only one with this issue.

Do you have pics of the calcium deposits?

The thin shells, how recent?
Could be she's slowing production to get ready to molt,
'tis the season if you live in the northern hemisphere.
Eggs can get a bit wonky around that time.

 

[Obiwan Henobi]

Do you have pics of the calcium deposits?

The thin shells, how recent?
Could be she's slowing production to get ready to molt,
'tis the season if you live in the northern hemisphere.
Eggs can get a bit wonky around that time.

Hmm...I hadn't thought about molting season. We live in Northwestern Ohio and fall/colder weather is just around the corner. I have attached two pix of "Gertie's" eggs. The first shows an egg with the calcium deposits. The deposits have been showing up for several months. The second egg was from the day before yesterday. It is thin- shelled with cracks, is misshaped, and also has some of the deposits on the surface. Yesterday she produced an egg with no shell.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Problem might be internal with her shelling gland, in which case there's nothing you can do to fix it. But it wouldn't hurt to try directly supplementing her with a daily calcium citrate tablet (same as the ones for humans) for a week or two - some birds need a lot more calcium than they're willing to intake to form decent shells.

If that works you can ease back on frequency of supplementing but she may need a regular regimen of calcium during her laying season.

 

[Obiwan Henobi]

I've read about calcium citrate from other threads. How would I administer the tablets?

 

[rosemarythyme]

I've read about calcium citrate from other threads. How would I administer the tablets?

You can stuff a whole pill in their mouth, they can swallow it with ease. I just squat on their back, open the beak with one hand, push the pill in with the other. If the hen as decent size wattles some people pull down on the wattles to get them to open up, but I have a number of birds without significant wattles.