time of year?

[BUFFS]

as said on a previous query,one of my birds is laying a soft egg each day,i checked and treated them for lice yesterday and the suspected bird seems like she could be moulting,would this be the cause i wonder? i thought that they moulted in the autumn/winter,apart from that,except for a few lice(treated) ,she seems fine,running around with the rest

[RichmondHens]

How old is she? It's early in the year to moult certainly. And they usually stop laying, then start to moult. It sounds like another problem going on, but difficult to say what. Soft shells with feather loss may indicate a nutritional imbalance (not necessarily your fault, maybe a fault within the bird) but not necessarily, but I'm afraid I don't know for certain.

[sheena]

I read somewhere that soft shelled eggs can also be a sign of stress or shock too.

Has there been any changes within the flock, even moving the feeder to a different location can upset them so I hear.

I've had soft shell eggs from a couple of my girls since I got some more girl's. Everyday I have at least one lying in the run that has been eaten, they usually lay in the nest area but cos the new girl's are still finding their feet they all congregate in the nest box for the entirety of the day and the older girl's have to fight their way through.

A couple of them manage to budge the newbie's into another nest box so they can lay, but when you see 4-5 girl's all huddled in the one cos they too scared to move in case that get picked on it does make you wonder what the hell they talk about

No amount of lime, oyster, grit or spice has helped, so I'm just having to play the waiting game.

I also got soft shells when I placed moved the nest boxes against the back wall instead of the side wall. Put it back to where it was and everything was back to normal. This was before the newbie's came along.

They seem to like change, but once they get used to it things should sort themselves out.

[BUFFS]

to sheena, well ,we only got the new birds about 4 weeks ago,the coop was enlarged to accomodate them all,and was turned 90 degrees onto the back wall,the suspected bird has started to regrow the lost feathers but still a soft egg each day,as you say,it might be stress/pecking order changed,i think i will put them on their comfort food..cheapo rice in the evenings,they had that all thru the winter and the days we never got an egg off each were very rare...thanks to all for the help..

[sheena]

No probs Buffs, I know how worrying it is when you get things like this.
And that is why us "grapes" are here, to help each other along the way to chook happiness.

Hope they respond to your special treatment, and lay some lovely eggs again soon.