Thin shells in chicken eggs are one of the many egg-laying problems that can arise while keeping this bird in the household and lead to losses in the productivity of the chicken flock.
Let's look at common egg-laying disorders in chickens - changes in the shell and shape of eggs, reasons for reluctance to lay eggs in nests and a reduction in clutch volume.
Egg shell problems
Thin shell
One of the main reasons for the appearance of thin shells in chicken eggs is a lack of calcium. The best solution to replenish the deficiency is to introduce tricalcium phosphate into the feed, which contains the required proportion of calcium and phosphorus, which is important, because excess phosphorus can also lead to the appearance of thin shells in eggs.
More natural and common ways of introducing calcium into the diet - chalk, shell rock, crushed egg shells can be a good solution when keeping meat and egg or outbred chickens, but this is not enough for highly productive egg crosses.
Other reasons for the formation of thin egg shells in chickens:
- young chickens can initially lay eggs with thin shells;
- many diseases suffered, including chronic ones, affect both the overall egg production and the quality of eggs, including the shell.
Thin egg shells in chickens lead to fighting and subsequent pecking
Bloody eggs
It is unpleasant to collect blood-stained eggs from nests, and this also causes the poultry farmer reasonable concern about the health of the hens. In fact, there is no single correct solution to this problem, as well as a single cause for this phenomenon.
Most often, such eggs are laid by pullets that are just beginning to lay eggs, and the issue can resolve itself as they grow older.
Bloody shells, as well as the appearance of blood streaks in the contents of eggs, can occur due to excess protein in the diet, then you need to reconsider feeding.
Such eggs with an unusually rough shell and calcareous growths appear as a result of disturbances in the chicken’s body during egg formation, as well as due to an unbalanced diet. Although they are not suitable for incubation, eggs with an unusual shell surface are quite safe to eat.
Marbling is uneven shell thickness and excessive porosity, which occurs due to a lack of vitamins and minerals and is often accompanied by the appearance of eggs with too thin, fragile shells.
Deformed eggs
Sometimes eggs appear with a normal shell, but a deformed appearance. The reason for this is the injury the hen received while the egg was in the oviduct. Then a crack forms on the still unformed egg, which, when overgrown, forms a fold. Sometimes chickens lay wrinkled or irregularly shaped eggs due to old age, pathologies of the reproductive organs, after illness or vaccination.
Eggs with deformations are eaten without fear, but they are not selected for hatching chickens.
Eggs without shell or with thin soft shell
As in each case discussed above, there are several reasons for the appearance of eggs in a thin soft shell or without it at all. One of them is stress or severe fright of the chicken. If such external obvious reasons were not observed, then you should look deeper for the roots of the problem.
The lack of calcium and, even more often, vitamin D in the diet is the main factor in the constant appearance of eggs in chickens in soft thin shells.
Other serious causes are Newcastle disease and infectious bronchitis.
An egg with a fragile thin shell can break if dropped or be crushed in the nest if collected at the wrong time. The appetizing contents may attract chickens, who will like such a variety of diet and some may get used to it and begin to peck at the eggs.
Other causes of pecking are hunger or an unbalanced diet. It is important to inspect nests in a timely manner, collecting whole eggs and carefully removing all remains of broken ones.
Thin shells are not the only problem with egg laying in chickens. A behavior disorder often occurs when chickens lay eggs anywhere except the nests prepared for them. The result is dirty, cracked or broken eggs, which chickens immediately begin to peck, which can later lead to them independently pecking and eating the eggs, and this is a big problem.
Even before oviposition begins, it is worth installing nests so that the pullets get used to them and examine them. Experienced poultry farmers place an artificial egg-liner made of wood, chalk or plaster in each such nest; this stimulates young chickens to lay eggs in the nests.
First, wooden nesting boxes are installed on the floor, in the most comfortable and quiet part of the poultry house. Once the hens start laying eggs, it makes sense to raise the boxes slightly off the floor, forcing the hen to jump to get inside. This will reduce the number of hens looking into nests simply out of boredom.
If the hens are still laying eggs on the floor, there may not be enough nests in the house and it may be worth adding a few boxes. different sizes, closed and open, allowing them to make a choice.
Dirty egg shells
Finding eggs stained with dirt or feces in a nest is not only unpleasant, it forces you to either store them in the same dirty state, which is completely unhygienic, or wash them, which will shorten the storage period to a day. In addition, a dirty shell, like the very thin one described at the beginning of the article, is an obstacle to egg incubation.
If the eggs are stained with dirt, it is worth inspecting the paddock and if there are puddles, drain them. It is worth loosening the litter more often and adding clean straw, hay or sawdust near the nests, which will allow dirt and moisture to collect on them. An often overlooked source of pollution is roosts. They should be removed regularly and cleaned of dried feces and dirt.
In addition, it is necessary to regularly change the filling of the nest; chickens are unable and will not restrain themselves during the act of defecation, so there are quite possible cases when a laying hen empties into the nest and then it is important to remove the contaminated litter in a timely manner.
Too few eggs
It's a shame not to get enough eggs, especially when you really need them! Insufficient egg production can be caused by several reasons, the most common being:
- low-productive breed of chickens - choose an egg-laying breed or cross;
- too cold - if the temperature in the poultry house drops below zero, it makes sense to use heat lamps or other heat sources;
- too hot - improving ventilation, constant availability of fresh cool water and locating the poultry house in the shade of buildings and lush trees will help solve this problem;
- reducing the length of daylight hours - the minimum length of daylight hours for laying hens is 14 hours, in winter time use backlighting;
- age of chickens - most egg breeds are “laid out” in two years, so the flock needs to be rejuvenated;
- lack of nutrients - balance your diet;
- excess nutrients, obesity - reduce the amount of protein and fatty foods;
- diseases and vitamin deficiencies - monitor the health of the herd and carry out preventive measures on time, include green feed in the diet in the summer, and hay, root vegetables and vitamin complexes in the winter.
Experienced poultry farmers, please share your knowledge, how did you manage to solve the problem of thin egg shells in chickens or other egg-laying problems? By leaving a comment, you will help novice hobbyists avoid mistakes and achieve excellent productivity of laying hens in the yard.
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Eggs are a valuable product of the diet of humanity, which consumes more and more of them, as well as a good help for subsidiary farming, especially if it is of high quality. Housewives often complain that chickens lay eggs with thin shells. Moreover, sometimes they lay eggs without shells, when the white is covered only by the shell membrane. What is the reason why chicken eggs have thin shells, and who is to blame for this, you will learn about it by reading this article.
Chicken eggs have thin shells, what to do?
Poultry farmers and just hobbyists have probably long noticed that young chickens lay eggs with harder shells. If the chicken has free and free range, and it is spring, summer, and autumn, then there are no problems with the shell either.
Winter is a completely different matter, either. In this case, the chicken does not have the opportunity to graze. However, the matter is not at all about Pasha ( green grass), but in the fact that when a chicken “walks”, she collects a bug, a worm, a moth, beetle larvae and other living creatures, which are:
- Sources of protein;
- Sources of organic calcium.
It is precisely the last point that plays the main role in the “creation” of egg shells. If a chicken lays eggs often, every day, this means that you are an excellent housewife. The chickens' diet contains enough proteins, fats and carbohydrates to synthesize an egg and give it to you as a gift.
But the gift needs to be wrapped, and the packaging is a shell, and if it is thin, or even completely absent, this means that you are a bad housewife.
To understand the intricacies of normal egg laying in chickens and its pathology, it is necessary to become familiar with the anatomical and physiological characteristics of the bird.
How the shell of chicken eggs is formed
The fact that an egg is an ordinary egg that is produced by the ovary of any female individual is probably known to everyone. But how exactly an egg acquires a solid “package” is not known to everyone.
In a chicken, the egg is formed in the oviduct, which consists of several sections:
funnel. This part “catches” the ready, mature yolk. Fertilization and the formation of the main protein strands take place in it. The yolk in the funnel spins like a screw, and the white seems to be wound onto it. Sometimes, due to various reasons, the white begins to curl on its own, in which case eggs without a yolk appear.
The yolk remains in this part for no more than 20 minutes, then through the neck of the oviduct, it passes into the next section;
protein. This is where the bulk of the protein accumulates. This happens within 3-4 hours;
isthmus. This section is responsible for the formation of a thread-like substance, which, when twisted, forms the shell. This happens within 1-1.5 hours;
uterus. It is this department that is responsible for the formation of the shell. Here the egg stays from 15 to 20 hours and, unfortunately, does not always successfully leave the department. 3-4 hours after entering the uterus, the egg acquires a thin, delicate shell, and then it gradually “grows”. The percentage of increase, its quality and quantity will depend on the level of calcium in the blood plasma.
Composition of chicken shell
Main chemical elements shell is calcium, the scientific term is calcite (a polymorphic form of calcium carbonate). It is joined by sodium, potassium, zinc, manganese, iron, copper and many other elements, as well as proteins and vitamins, the main one being Vit D.
In the old days, and maybe even now, in some villages, the huts were whitewashed with chalk (calcium carbonate) and our ancestors noticed how chickens began to peck at the hut. However, they did not do harm just because they wanted to, but “acted mischief” because there was not enough calcium in the diet.
When chickens eat their eggs, it is also not because they want to eat (although they also eat the white and yolk, and who would refuse), but because there is no longer a source of calcium, and a self-preservation mechanism works in the body.
It would seem that it would be easier to buy a bag of chalk at a hardware store and pour it into a feeder, but construction chalk:
It has many impurities of arsenic, which is not excreted from the bird’s body, but accumulates (accumulative properties of heavy metals);
Chalk very quickly binds with hydrochloric acid in the chicken's stomach and is washed out of gastrointestinal tract, and by the time its ions are needed, it is already in the litter;
Calcium carbonate is not organic matter, therefore, it is needed many times more. Of course, as a last resort, it is used, and earlier poultry farms were guilty of such feeding, but today there is an alternative.
The glands that produce the shell “take” calcium from the blood plasma. It enters the bloodstream with food. If there is not enough calcium in a chicken’s diet, it is washed out of the bones, which is why, when cutting up the carcass of a good laying hen, we can easily break the bones. However, the same self-preservation does not allow calcium to be “washed out” from the medullary tissue of bones indefinitely (no more than 10% per day), which is why chicken eggs have thin shells and sometimes disappear completely.
What to feed laying hens to lay eggs better
The source of calcium for both animals, birds and humans are feed and products of animal origin.
If in summer a chicken catches everything that crawls and flutters, then in winter there should be feed additives in its diet.
The main source is meat and bone and fish meal, sour milk or whey, slaughterhouse waste.
You can use premixes that are produced by enterprises and, judging from the description of the recipe, must contain all the necessary components.
In Europe, as an alternative to a source of organic calcium, farms are being built to produce Californian worms (they also make food for dogs and cats from it). Our industry is gaining momentum, but very slowly, and yet the reserves are simply enormous.
A wonderful alternative
Those farms that are located near rivers do not have problems with shells. If chickens have free access to shells, they provide themselves with organic calcium.
IN lately on the market you can easily find bags of pre-packaged feed shells intended for feeding poultry, and they are an excellent alternative to organic calcium of animal origin.
By eating a shell in the second half of the day, the chicken has the opportunity to slowly decompose it and absorb calcium, which “pours” into the blood plasma gradually, in doses, and enters the shell glands exactly at the moment when it is needed there.
There is no point in leaving the shell for the bird’s constant access; the excess will come out in transit, but after 14.00 it must be given in plenty.
Fodder limestone is also an excellent fertilizer, but it is difficult to purchase in small quantities. It mainly serves as an additive to.
If mineral supplements for chickens are supplied in your region, you should use them. The limestone mineral complex is rich in both calcium and other elements necessary for the bird’s body for high-quality egg laying.
When considering the question “Why do chicken eggs have thin shells?”, it is necessary to take a comprehensive approach to assessing the diet and try to balance it to ensure the presence of all necessary for the body components.
Sometimes it happens that poultry farmers find eggs that differ little in appearance from ordinary ones, but with a soft shell. It turns out that this may indicate both a banal lack of calcium and very serious problems with the health of the bird.
In natural habitats, the problem of soft eggs is unfamiliar to birds: this is due to the fact that wild birds lay eggs solely for reproduction. While the domestic hen tirelessly supplies us useful product. There may be several reasons why a bird lays soft eggs:
- an incorrectly composed diet, as a result of which the chicken does not receive a number of useful vitamins and microelements;
- individual hormonal disorders in laying hens, which may be associated with age;
- Poultry affected by infectious or viral diseases.
Video “Reasons for missing shells in eggs”
From the video you will learn why a chicken lays eggs without shells.
Errors in the preparation of diet and placement of chickens
To answer the question why chickens lay eggs with thin shells, you need to know the number of birds and the size of the chicken coop.
As practice shows, the smaller the poultry house, the less attention the poultry farmer pays to preparing the diet, believing that the chickens should have enough leftover food from the owner’s table. Very rarely in such situations the need to add vitamin components to the feed is taken into account. As a result, you end up with eggs with soft shells or no shells at all.
True, the problem does not appear immediately - for some time the laying hen’s body compensates for the lack of necessary substances using its internal resources: then the breast and costal bones suffer. To overcome the problem, you need to add crushed shell rock, chalk or eggshells to the food. It is important to take into account that the diet of laying hens should contain a sufficient amount of zinc and vitamin C. Do not underestimate the scale of the problem; if the poultry farmer does not take any measures to normalize the diet, then the hen’s body will become so depleted that one day the bird simply will not be able to rise to its feet and inevitably will die.
One more possible problem the appearance of soft eggs - improper organization of the room. If hens are kept in a cramped, dark house and rarely go outside, the egg clutch may also become soft. In this case, proper organization of walking or additional lighting of the chicken coop will help.
Hormonal disorders
The process of egg formation in a laying hen is controlled by the central nervous system birds. If a bird experiences a stressful situation or problems with the nervous system arise, of course, the egg-laying process is also disrupted, which is manifested by an increase in the number of soft-shelled eggs. 
When this happens, and provided that you are absolutely sure of the completeness of the diet and the correct conditions for keeping the hens, it is worth taking the bird to the veterinarian to find out the causes of dysfunction and prescribe therapeutic measures.
Viruses and infections
Chicken eggs have thin shells and what to do if the reason lies in availability infectious diseases. First of all, you need to make a correct diagnosis. Oviposition disorders can be caused by the following diseases:
If a bird suffers from decreased egg production syndrome, it begins to lay deformed eggs with abnormal shell density. In this case, you cannot do without veterinary help: only a specialist will be able to determine the scale of the problem, prescribe treatment or recommend selective culling of the livestock.
If your chickens have contracted infectious bronchitis, they must be treated with special medications right in the poultry house to prevent the spread of the disease. In cases where they suffer from manifestations of mycoplasmosis or Newcastle disease, they, unfortunately, will have to be destroyed to prevent the progression of the infection. True, mycoplasmosis is treatable, but only in the very early stages of the disease.
Video “Diseases of chickens”
From the video you will learn about the most common diseases of chickens.
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Soft-shelled eggs, small eggs without a yolk, eggs with deformed or speckled shells. Quite often I get asked questions (and sent all sorts of creepy photos to my email address) about the reasons for the appearance of unusual eggs in chickens - with bumps, tubercles, with small spots, speckled, in a soft shell. In most cases, this is not a cause for concern.
Although it is often customary to judge the health status of chickens by the appearance of eggs - healthy birds eat healthy, balanced food and lay the same eggs of the usual regular shape, sometimes abnormal eggs that appear can be considered a completely normal phenomenon. You should only worry if this happens constantly, as the cause may lie in serious health problems.
So I decided to describe some of the most typical and harmless types of abnormal chicken eggs.
Small eggs without yolk
These are eggs the size of a small ball and are often found in young laying hens. The reason they appear is that the shell is formed around an egg without a yolk and surrounds only the white, which is why the size of the eggs is so small. This is a fairly common occurrence among young laying hens until their bodies reach sexual maturity. It is better to eat such eggs rather than try to hatch chicks from them - even if they have a yolk inside, the space inside the shell is too small for the normal development of the embryo.
Double Yolk Eggs
When two yolks are too close to each other in the oviduct, they are sometimes covered by the same white (and shell) at the same time, resulting in a fairly large egg. In general, a double yolk in an egg is not a cause for concern, so if your chicken regularly lays such eggs, I would simply turn a blind eye to it if I were you. This does not pose any potential danger to the health of chickens; in addition, eggs with a double yolk are an excellent food product.
Speckled eggs
As the egg moves through the oviduct, it turns. If the rotation is too fast, the egg may have a smudged pattern. If the egg moves slowly, then small inclusions of pigment appear on it. Many (especially Welzumer) regularly lay speckled eggs. These are one of the most beautiful types of eggs, and they look great on the dinner table.
Eggs with white deposits on the shell
Small white particles on eggs are nothing more than calcium deposits. If there are various kinds of particles in the oviduct from which the shell is formed, then calcium begins to be released to bind them. This causes white deposits to form on the shell. They can be easily peeled off with a fingernail, after which the eggs can be eaten.
Eggs with wrinkled or ridged shells
The appearance of such eggs is quite common for more experienced ones. This can be caused by stress during egg laying due to a loud dog barking, a lurking predator, thunderstorms, or other stimuli. Although from an aesthetic point of view such eggs cannot be called beautiful, they can be successfully eaten.
Soft shell eggs
As a rule, such eggs appear due to a lack of calcium in the diet, although there may be other reasons, for example, an excess of spinach in the feed. I would not take the risk of eating such soft-shelled eggs, since they lack the first line of defense against bacteria that gets inside the egg - the shell.
Eggs without shell
The only exception to the list of safe unusual types of eggs may be eggs without shells. You may have heard about them. I have been breeding chickens for seven years and have never encountered such a problem. But I do know that this is not a death sentence for chicken, as you may have heard or read somewhere.
However, eating such eggs is dangerous.
They're not actually real eggs—they're a soft, rubbery mass that a hen sometimes lays toward the end of her cycle. According to many poultry experts, these so-called eggs are actually part of a reproductive system that has gone awry. As a result, they are excreted from the body through the oviduct.
As a rule, after the appearance of such eggs, chickens no longer lay eggs.
Unusual eggs are usually a random occurrence and nothing to worry about. However, it is still better to familiarize yourself with useful information... just to be on the safe side.
Video about feeding chickens correctly to stop pecking eggs
Chicken eggs have thin or soft shells: what to do, what to feed the chickens Recently, I began to notice that my chickens began to lay strange eggs with a soft shell. They are poorly stored and easily spoiled. And for some reason, it was in the spring that I noticed that thin shells appeared on chicken eggs. What to do in such a situation, how to correct the situation and what to feed the chickens? A thin shell of a chicken egg, especially in the spring, is one of the first signs of a lack of vitamins and minerals necessary for the bird. Of particular importance for chickens are elements such as phosphorus and calcium, as well as vitamin D, or the “sunshine” vitamin, as it is also commonly called. The presence of the first two substances in the correct ratio is responsible for the normal formation of bones in young animals and shells in laying hens. For example, the norm of calcium and phosphorus for chickens is 0.7-0.9% of the total daily feed volume. Thin or soft shells of chicken eggs. Also signs of calcium deficiency are decreased appetite, delays in growth and development, and light bones. Vitamin D has a significant effect on the absorption of both elements. With its deficiency, they are not absorbed by the body, resulting in rickets, deterioration of the bone tissue of the extremities (lameness appears in chickens, weakness of the legs). Chickens lay eggs either without a shell or with a film coating. Vitamin D deficiency can be further aggravated by a lack of essential minerals for chicken. You can compensate for its deficiency by giving chickens Tetravit, Trivitamin, which can be bought by going to a specialized store. In order to strengthen the shells of eggs and to prevent a lack of vitamins and minerals, chickens should be given supplements containing phosphorus and calcium: shell rock, chalk, meat and bone meal, fish oil, slaked lime, etc. You can treat birds with ash, cottage cheese, or their own crushed shells, which must be boiled, dried and crushed into powder. It takes about 2.1-2.3 g of calcium to form the egg shells of a chicken, which means that she needs to receive about 4.5 g of this element per day. At the same time, the bird should eat at least 50% of calcium-containing supplements after lunch (at about 2-3 p.m.) - this option will allow the chicken’s body to receive calcium in accordance with its physiological needs for shell formation. This way it will be stronger and better quality. It is better to give limestone in the morning, and crushed shells in the afternoon, since it will linger in the digestive system longer than the first feeding option. Also, the chicken must have the opportunity to walk in the sun. The correct calcium-phosphorus ratio is also very important for chickens. Optimal for laying hens is 3-5:1. Disruption of this balance can also cause shell fragility. A lack of manganese and zinc can also affect the decrease in the strength of egg integument. An excellent source of the first element is bran, root vegetables, and grass. It should be remembered that the quality of the shell is greatly influenced by the calm, measured life of the bird. Under stress, as well as during illness, the chicken will not be able to lay good eggs. The quality of the product is greatly affected by bird flu, bronchitis, and encephalomyelitis. You can compensate for the lack of minerals by giving the bird various supplements sold in stores. This could be Layer, Ryabushka and others.