Suddenly very ill

Not an old hybrid, then, who might be expected to lay softies. Maybe she will come back into lay. You could try Nettex Mineral Powder as a supplement, it's very good for improving shell quality, has seaweed and probiotics in it as well as calcium and vitamin supplements. Perhaps she is better but still not fully fit yet.
 
I'm hoping that's it. But of course with her laying breaking wet eggs its still possible further infection will set in.

Never a dull moment!
 
Oh, and obviously Matilda the Rhode rock is doing her best to keep Janes wet mess (and everyone else's eggs) warm. Because why wouldn't she choose now to go broody? Got to get another broody spell in before moulting haven't you? :-)
 
Eery morning now there is the wet mess that's the sign Jane has laid another shell-less egg. Dunno quite what to do about it - Matilda my black rock is usually the one standing over eating the remnants. Worried she may start on the proper eggs.

Any ideas anyone?
 
Hi Cab.
I had the same problem & only got around it by
a) my chief culprit egg-eater disappearing whilst free-ranging (we only found a few feathers),
b) building a bigger nestbox to take rollaway nest box inserts,
c) taking down the "curtain" that I'd put up to make the nestbox dark to discourage egg-eating &
d) filling the whole area of coop that wasn't occupied with perches, with flowerpots, so that the only place that the hens could lay was on the rollaway inserts. I also had to put some bedding (aubiose in my case) on the inserts for a few weeks to make them more attractive to the hens, to get them to start using them.

Now the hard-shelled eggs are pretty safe from eating. It's taken a lot of work, but it was better (in my eyes) than culling the egg-eating birds & restocking, as I'm too soft for that.

Hope you can solve the problem. Eggshells filled with English mustard (it needs to be a yolk-colour mustard) placed in the coop can also help, & are well worth a try.

I still occasionally get eggs with an exploratory
 
Cheers icemaiden.

I'm seeing no signs that Janes eggs are soft shell. Their is no shell.

They're being laid during the night, they're appearing by dawn under the perch - yolky, eggy, and being eaten by Matilda.

No sign of anyone going for proper eggs yet.

Considering separating Jane out over night - but it'll certainly upset her :(
 
Three out of her last five eggs haven't been soft, they've been a weird shape and thin shelled :)

This is progress. Good grief, after all this I hope she gets it right!
 
Have you got room for rollaway nest box inserts in your nestbox? It's definitely easier to prevent the egg-eating habit from getting entrenched than to try to solve it. Once they get into the habit of eating shell-less & soft shelled eggs (the latter sometimes break in the coop), it doesn't take long for them to start trying "proper" eggs to test the shells for peckability...
 
We have a Leghorn Bantam laying soft or thin shelled eggs at night. The others eat them in the morning. Then the same hen goes into the nest box during the day to lay. One of the others (Bluebell) keeps going in to check for eggs and she actually went through all the bedding checking for an egg. When she finds an egg she taps it and if it doesn't break immediately she leaves it alone. We put a pot egg in last year so she knows that solid eggs are very solid and leaves them.

But I can't understand why these eggs are being laid at night. It is as if they just slip out on their own, with the hen (Daisy) being totally unaware of it.
 
Haven't been here for a while, thought I'd pop in to give an update...

Jame is still laying odd shaped eggs. There's the odd soft shell that breaks, but most of them are solid enough but oddly shaped. Could well be the case that'll be how it is for her from now - whatever the infection she had was might have left permanent damage. But she's still laying, maybe 3 or 4 eggs a week, which with the rhode rock, goldline and white leghorn laying near enough an egg a day each is fine.

Hard rubber eggs seem to be deterring proper eggs getting eaten.

So really, all in all, I'm happy with how she's done :)

I'll be happier still when my cream legbar Edie finally starts laying
 
Nice to hear form you again Cab; you've been missed.
Good to hear that Jane's doing better on the shell production too. Who cares if the shells look a bit funny, if you're going to crack them open anyway? ;)
 
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