[Tricia]

Hi, I am a relatively new hen owner - 3 ex caged battery hens.  I have had them for about 10 weeks.  They have been laying consitently since I got them and they have not really slowed down ever since, even with the very short daylight hours.  My query is about the quality of the shells of one of the hens eggs.  What happens is that there will be one egg with too much shell, all lumpy and oddly shaped, then the next one will be very soft shell, sometimes too soft to pick up and it breaks, then there may be a perfect egg, then no egg, then the lumpy one again, and the cycle continues.  It has been that way pretty well since the beginning.  More recently, all of her eggs are very soft and are often broken before I can get to them - probably by another hen laying next to it or it being walked on, etc.  I have only an inkling as to which hen it is and have no possibility of seperating them to find out which one.  I'm not sure what I would do anyway, even if I did know for sure.  They have easy access to oyster grit, I have cooked up egg shells and pulverised them down to a fine pwoder and put that back in their food, they have been wormed, they get a lot of variety in the areas that they can peck around, and have plenty of food including a handful of mixed corn daily.  The hen that I think has the problem is also the smallest, not seeming to have put on as much weight as the others.  Any ideas, Tricia

[little blue]

I'll be interested to see if anyone does have a suggestion - we have an ex-batt who does this, and the eggs are huge....
So as long as I can get it into the house in one piece, it cooks great!

ours too have grit, plenty of food and water & greens.  I guess its just the price paid on a short, hard life for mrs hen

[Daisys Mum]

 A few of my older hens do the same I think that it is just them coming to the end of their laying days.

[dyedinthewool]

Hi Tricia 

welcome to the forum - it's best if you post this in the poultry section there should be lots of experienced forumer's that can answer you.

I'm still waiting to get eggs mine should be coming into lay next year - meanwhile I'm still buying from the local farm shop.

[morri2]

Welcome from north Wales Tricia!  My first six chickens were ex-bats, and I had the same problem and couldn't find a way round it - in the end one or two of them started eating their own (and others) eggs before I could get to them. My Dad came up with the idea of putting a staging in their laying area with a hole where they lay so the egg drops down short distance onto a bed of straw or other soft material, out of their way so they can't be eaten or walked on. I had a few with no shells at all too.  I really hope you can find a solution. In any event, they make entertaining pets. Good luck!

[Frieslandfilly]

 A few of my older hens do the same I think that it is just them coming to the end of their laying days.

Agree with this comment, hens lay wierd shape eggs when they are toward the latter end of thier laying days, I have a flock that is about 3 years old now and started to get lumps and bumps, and pointy ends etc, even had one with a flat side once, quite amusing sometimes!!

[darkbrowneggs]

Hi there - the laying strains nowadays are really bred to produce the maximum number of eggs during their first laying cycle, hence the reason for the farmers clearing them out and re-stocking.  I think you can sometimes be lucky and sometimes unlucky with whether they can continue to lay. 

It may well be that yours are just about due to go into their first moult, in which case the soft and weak shelled eggs may reappear after their moult (approx 14-18 weeks but sometimes will take considerably longer) then all being well they should resume normal laying

All the best
Sue

[Petey]

Hi and welcome.

We have four ex batts that we adopted in early May and had exactly the same problem. We made sure they had good feed, plenty of grit and water and the problem cleared up after 3 months. Hope your hens clear up shortly, all the best.

Petey