Chicken laying a shell-less egg

[WAC1]

Good morning
We have four new young hens and they are very lovely. Over the last week we have had 3 eggs. Yesterday and today there was just one egg but it was soft & didn't have a shell. Yesterday it was small and mid shaped and today it was like a normal egg shape but squishy.

All hens vaccinated and given a health check last week and all seem happy and healthy

Could this be one of the birds starting to lay as she's young? Or could there be another issue?

It's really quite gross

I hope they're ok!

Thank you

One of mine did that for occasional eggs when she first started laying. I tried to give calcium via grit but they just stepped on it tipped it out.

It stopped after a few weeks.

This was an Isa Brown so a commercial breed. Maybe it's more common in the continuously laying breeds?

Have they only just started laying? It can take a little while of weird eggs before they get their arm in.

And even then, chickens being chickens, something can put them off and you'll get the occasional odd egg.

I thought that might be the case, we've mixed grit with their food so I hope that helps. They really are quite unpleasant 😂 thank you

Yeah, I've often had shell-less eggs (just the membrane) when POLs are coming into lay, or even with established hens if they've been off lay for a while.

I don't think they are gross though, they are literally the same thing just missing the shell.

We had it a few times too with beginners, it's nothing to worry about.

Rather than grit, we sterilise our eggshells in the oven (when it's on anyway), then grind them up and feed them back to the hens. They love it and it's a handy way to recycle the calcium.

You need a calcium supplement for their food,can order easily off Amazon etc.cam ask advice on British hen welfare trust website.its hard for them to lay soft eggs so worth keeping an eye on

It's not out of the ordinary to have some blips when they first come into lay. However, making sure there's plenty of bioavailable calcium in their diet is crucial now they're laying. Not only calcium but ensuring the calcium to phosphorus ratio is right.

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