Can you believe we are in the middle of the summer already? If you are like our house, you have eggs coming out of your ears! Gathering eggs is one of my favorite chores.

I sometimes get asked if I have trouble with soft eggshells or if the eggshells are so thin or they crack easily? If you are experiencing this with your girls, have no fear. I can help!

Let’s start with why your hens might be laying soft shelled eggs and what you can do to help them.

Hens can start laying soft shelled eggs for several reasons. It can range from the age of your hen all the way to stress and calcium deficiency.

Here are some of the top reasons your girls might be laying soft shelled eggs:

Age

The age of your hens could be impacting the quality of their eggshells. When young birds first start laying eggs, they can be soft. Then as your birds age, the older birds can also start laying more eggs that are soft.

Calcium Deficiency

Did you know that 95% of your girls’ eggshells are made up of calcium? Meaning, they require a lot of calcium in their diet to help them grow strong healthy eggs. It’s also important to note that too much calcium can cause eggshells to be too thick.

Stress & Illness

You cannot always see it, but backyard flocks have several stressors that can cause their digestive health and immune systems to be disrupted. Your hens might even be experiencing nutrient absorption issues.

Weather changes like the heat that’s occurring today in the 93-degree summer sun can be harmful to your flock! Other stresses are predators, or when you start to add those new chicks you bought this spring to your flock. When the health of your flock is compromised because of these stresses, the result can be soft eggs.

Diet

Just like us humans, a balanced diet is important for your girls. It’s important that your hens don’t get too much protein. Also, be on the lookout for nutritional deficiencies in phosphorous, selenium, vitamin D, E and B12 in their diet that can have an impact.

As you can see, hens can start laying soft shelled eggs for many reasons.

However, we haven’t experienced soft eggshells in our hen house and here’s the reason why.

My best advice: Do what we do, give your girl’s Chicken E-lixir™ in their drinking water every day. I treat my girl’s just like my kiddos and make sure they are taking their daily vitamins. I know it has saved me from having soft shelled eggs!

Chicken E-lixir is a natural approach to keeping chickens healthy by supporting immune systems and promoting digestive health. It contains a unique blend of organic oregano essential oil, prebiotics, calcium, vitamins D & E and electrolytes.

Meaning, Chicken E-lixir covers all your bases and includes everything you need for healthy eggs! Most importantly, the calcium in Chicken E-lixir is high quality. The calcium lactate in this product is human food grade quality and it is balanced at just the right amount for your flock to lay strong healthy eggs.

It’s very easy to use and economical. You simply mix one capful of Chicken E-lixir with one gallon of drinking water. One bottle of Chicken E-lixir will mix up 32 gallons of water.

I also feed our chickens a good quality layer crumble, give them a few treats here and there, and then make sure they always have fresh water with Chicken E-lixir available. I do provide oyster shells as well on an as-needed basis. We have no soft eggshells here and my flock is thriving!

For a bonus Wing Tip for combating heat stress that could be contributing to soft eggshells. Try Flock Fixer™ Frozen Treats!

Flock Fixer is a rich vitamin water additive that rapidly rehydrates and restores nutrients of heat stressed hens.

Check out our video here to learn how to make my famous Flock Fixer Frozen Treats so you can keep your girls cool, healthy, and back to laying strong eggs.

I’ve been using Chicken E-lixir and Flock Fixer with my flock since the day I brought them home. They’re healthy, happy birds who lay more eggs than we know what to do with. That is a “problem” I’m more than happy to deal with!

Both Flock Fixer and Chicken E-lixir are available on Amazon here!

Happy midsummer,

–The Wing Lady

Q & A

My readers have asked me in the past if they can use these products with other types of birds like turkeys or ducks. The answer is YES! Strong Animals Chicken Essentials products are safe for all types of backyard flocks except for exotic birds.