Question Soft Shelled Eggs

[Jetsko]

Good Morning

Looking for some advice on diet for my girls. I have

2 - 7mth old Bielefelder - I have found a broken soft shelled egg on the board where they roost a couple of times in the last 2 weeks
2 - 7mth old Red Sex Link / Bielefelder cross - one lays almost daily normal dark brown egg; One has laid a few paper soft eggs just outside the nesting box. (I saw her in the nesting box and later found the egg)
2 - 2yr old Light Sussex laying light brown normal eggs almost daily

I feed them layer crumb from my local feed store and have oyster shell available in a separate feeder. They free range (9am - 7pm on a 1 acre country lot) most days.

Are the soft shelled eggs just immaturity since the Bielefelder is slow to mature or should I be adding something more to their diet?


Thank you in advance for your advice

[Jaye]

1. In the case of the 7-month-old Beilefelders, could be just immaturity: first eggs sometimes are about getting the system gears sorted out and running smoothly.
2. It's possible that your feed doesn't have a high enough calcium content?
3. In my experience, our chickens don't care for crushed oyster shells, so I cook (oven or microwave) and crush their shells and feed them back to them in a free-choice separate feeder. I also sometimes sprinkle calcium carbonate powder over the fermented feed I give them every morning in addition to free-choice layer feed.
4. Laying just outside the nest box could be for any number of reasons ... might be due to another chicken hassling her.

[lolotsung]

our rhode island reds had very thin shells and soemtimes no shells for about 6 months...they ate about half a chick container of crushed oyster shells and now stopped eating them...I'll try the cooked shells...thanks @Jaye

[Jetsko]

Jaye
1 -will try the crushed cooked egg shells
2 - will check the % calcium and compare with other feed stores in the area.

I tried fermenting layer mash before I got the new girls, the older ones girls didn't like it - How do you make your fermented feed?

Thanks

[Jaye]

Sometimes it takes awhile for them to try it and like it, especially if they are older chickens that weren't offered it when they were younger. We have found that if at least one tries it and likes it, the rest will follow suit.
I just ferment the mixed organic grains I buy from the feed store. Three bucket rotation setup. We have three small 1 litre buckets because we don't have a large flock and it's best to only make enough to last for a few days especially during the heat of the summer months, because it will go skunky if it ferments too long. Our quail love it too.

edited to add: we keep our buckets indoors, so they have some every morning, all year round.

[Home Grown Poultry]

sounds like your doing everything I would. my thinking is, when pullets start to lay the first few are never optimal and suffer in one way or another. there systems are just starting to work and I would wait until they are laying consistently before being alarmed. my chickens get laymash milled at the local grain mill and we have a container full of oyster shells for the old girls.... we dont do anything fancy other than provide fresh grass or hay daily and some of our leftovers that dont contain chicken and that the dog dosent want. our mill has a high quality feed with almost no dust in it. I think it's the best of the best from Bridgen Feed Mill...