Hen not laying consistently and now her one eye is closed

Hi all,

We are new to raising chickens, and seem to have a problem with one of our hens. We have 10 hens total, 3 have been laying an egg a day for the past month or so, the other seven are just getting old enough to lay. Last week, we noticed that several days we only got 1 or 2 eggs for the day. My husband thought maybe we needed to supplement their feed, that maybe the layer feed we are using is lacking nutrient that they need. We also had weather changes, going from hot and dry to wet and cold during that time period. Egg production picked up again over the last few days, but we were short an egg again today. We noticed tonight that one of our older hens now has an eye that is staying shut when she is up and about. She seemed to be eating and drinking ok, but her movements seem somewhat slower and her comb looks smaller than it had.


Updated....

Both eyes are open and her belly is soft. Someone in another thread had asked if she is egg bound. Her belly is soft and she does not seem to be in any apparent distress.

I have read some posts about molting, but I don't know if she is old enough to be molting; she is approx 7.5 months.

Thanks for any help

I doubt that she would be molting at 7 months. The closed eye could have been the result of a pecking injury. Glad it righted itself. When hens first start to lay the pattern can be rather erratic. Are you feeding layer pellets?