In this video, you see Agnes laying a soft shell egg. I’ve been getting a mix of soft shell and perfect shell eggs this week.

The first thing to note is that my flock is only 15 weeks old at this point. Most chickens will begin laying anywhere from 4 to 6 months old, so my girls are way earlier than I ever expected. I am not surprised to see soft shell eggs, nor am I surprised to find them laying these eggs here there and everywhere, including while sitting on the roost.

Aside from their very young age, soft shell eggs are something to evaluate.

FEED

There are different types of feed for different purposes. If you’re new, it can be a little bit overwhelming. Your new chicks are not able to digest food easily, so it’s important to begin with a crumble specifically formulated for growing chicks. Crumble does not require grit for the chicken to break down and digest. When your flock reaches 3 months (12 weeks) they can start getting your fresh kitchen scraps, free range foraging and an adult feed. I switched my girls to a Layer Feed at 12 weeks. I ferment the feed to both enrich the nutrients and stretch my dollar (more information in the chicken coop section). During the day they free range and in the evening they get Scratch thrown on the sandy floor of the chicken run.

SUPPLEMENTS

Generally, soft shells means the chickens need more calcium in their diet. Oyster Shells are the most common supplement chicken raisers will use as a regular supplement. This nice thing about the oyster shells is that they work as grit while offering a slow release of calcium. I usually toss oyster shells down with the Scratch in the evening. However, this clearly isn’t doing the job. So I set off to find a different type of supplement. I found this Bone and Egg Supplement as well as and Electrolyte Supplement. They have been ordered, so I will update this post when I have received the product and introduced it to the feeding regiment.